After an amazing comeback from 10 points down Kansas City Chiefs pulled it out of the bag to defeat the San Francisco 49ers 31 to 20 last night in Miami.

I have seen Arrowhead Stadium when we watched Kansas City Royals vs Chicago White Sox over a decade ago. The two stadiums are built side by side in the middle of nowhere and this was probably one of the first occasions that I realised the shear size and space available to sports franchises. Located conveniently of the I70 it is accessible from most directions.

What was most amazing was not the Superbowl but the impact that hosting it in Miami had on the travel industry so far away from the actual date of the game. When I was building cruises with land products the week of the Superbowl almost 18 months out had an impact on accommodation prices. I know it isn’t surprising that rates went up but boy did they go up……by thousands and I mean thousands of dollars. The prices just kept going up and in the end we took that date off sale because it made the 7 night cruise with flight unsaleable. UK cruisers to the States are more often than not offered a nights accommodation because it just is impossible to transfer to the port in time. I wonder if the cruise industry ever take this into account because they could of made that date a different departure port.

So where is Superbowl 55? Florida again! This time in Tampa but I do wonder what the thinking is behind such decisions. There aren’t as many Tampa cruise departures but I predict that Miami, Fort Lauderdale and surrounding towns accommodation prices will be affected.

When I was working for Cosmos they had escorted tours that either over-nighted or visited during the day to Philadelphia. The Denver office took the decision very early on to cancel part of the rotation entirely or re-route away from the city because of the visit of Pope Francis back in 2015. Apparently in the end there was plenty of available accommodation as the anticipated 2 million visitors didn’t materialise.

If you are a Kansas City Chief fan enjoy the moment!