Miami Super Bowl Couldn't Have Come At Better Time

MIAMI, FL — Do you remember the Miami Super Bowl? We weren't wearing masks back in February and many of us would have thought social distancing.was a polite way of saying we just blocked an internet stalker.

"If you think back to Feb. 2, it’s amazing," recalled Rodney Barreto, who chaired the Miami Super Bowl Host Committee. "It seems like that’s a lifetime away, and it wasn’t that long ago."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he suspects the coronavirus may have already been circulating in South Florida by the time the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 31-20 at Hard Rock Stadium. That makes the timing all the more incredible — or just plain lucky.

"We’re very fortunate that we were able to get off the game. Oh my God I often think if COVID had hit while we were in the final planning stages, what a disaster we would have had on our hands," Barreto shared. "Thank God that wasn’t the case."

Barreto and organizers of Super Bowl LIV gathered virtually Wednesday to recap the economic benefits the game delivered to the Miami area weeks before the coronavirus caused unfathomable economic hardship.

Barreto, who also chaired Miami's Super Bowl host committee in 2007 and 2010, said Super Bowl LIV brought $572 million worth of new spending in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The game generated $34 million worth of tax revenue for the state of Florida.

"It was a collective effort between Dade, Broward and Palm Beach — both private sector and public sector — to pull this off," he said.

Next year's Super Bowl LV in Tampa is still planned for Feb. 7, but it's not clear whether organizers will have to scale back some events amid coronavirus concerns.

In Miami, Super Bowl LIV will be remembered for some of the community projects it brought to South Florida.

The Oceans To Everglades campaign removed 54 tons of single-use plastic from the ocean. The Business Connect program linked minority-owned businesses with larger vendors, while a collaborative project among law enforcement organizations and the NFL took aim at sex-traffickers.

Five legacy projects brought an investment of $2.4 million in funding for South Florida, according to Barreto.

Miami-Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel said the Super Bowl had some intangible benefits for South Florida.

"The CEO of every major corporation is here at the Super Bowl," he said. "The celebrities and the people that are here to showcase our great region, and all it has to offer, was really a special moment for me."

Bill Talbert, who heads the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, said thousands of media representatives delivered more than one billion internet impressions.

"You can’t calculate the media coverage with 6,300 media here for a week, and also the social media," he said.

Some 61 percent of Super Bowl LIV visitors left with a more favorable impression of South Florida while 41 percent planned to return, according to organizers.

"The numbers are just off the charts," Talbert said.