San Diego hotels seek super patrons

Reservations are down 15 percent compared to the last title game there.
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A week before Super Sunday, hotel reservations are down 15-to-25 percent from the last time this city hosted the NFL's championship game, prompting a drop in rates.
Two of the main reasons: a weak economy and cutbacks in corporate spending.
"Corporate America isn't coming to this year's Super Bowl like they did in 1998," said Matt Deline, of San Diego Hotel Reservations, Inc., the official reservations agency for this year's game.
Local room reservations agencies estimate that 70-to-80 percent of San Diego's 51,100 hotel and motel rooms have been booked, compared to 95 percent at the same time in 1998.
"I still have guarded optimism that the last few days will produce the volume of demand," said Wayne Blum, general manager at the waterfront Dana Inn and Marina on Mission Bay, which still had 125 of its 200 rooms available as of late last week. In 1998, all of its rooms were booked three months in advance.
Fewer sponsors
There are other factors.
The NFL reduced the number of sponsors and licensed businesses at this year's Super Bowl. In 1998, more than 30 corporate sponsors and 350 licensed businesses came to San Diego. This year, there are 15 sponsors and 100 licensees.
"It was a strategic decision. We're doing more business with fewer companies," league spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
Organizers estimate it costs $7,500 to $10,000 for a company to send someone to the Super Bowl.
"People are being more cost-conscious and examining what their budget is," NFL senior VP Jim Steeg said.
For example, Steeg said, a group of sales personnel for ABC-TV, which is broadcasting Sunday's game, balked at paying prices of up to $600 per night for a top hotel in downtown San Diego.
They shopped around for better rates at a comparable hotel and found one -- at least an hour away by car, in Orange County.
"Everybody's worried about rates," Steeg said.
One-week gap
Also hurting this year's bookings could be the shorter gap between the conference title games and the Super Bowl -- one week instead of two.
To help its cause, San Diego's tourism bureau ran full-page ads in the local papers of the final four playoff teams Sunday. The ads featured a billboard with a message from the San Diego Convention & amp; Visitors bureau -- "Vacancy: We've Got Room for You."
Hotel managers already have dropped rates by up to 20 percent, reducing the average price for a room to $275 a night, compared to $350 a night five years ago.
Still, reservation agencies are offering a positive spin: Fewer corporate bookings should translate into more rooms and more tickets at a lower price for fans.
"This is the first 'fan' Super Bowl ever. Corporate America drives up prices. You've got to be pretty thrilled this time that hotel rooms are available and they're not as expensive as they were in 1998," said Deline, whose reservation agency is anticipating about 2,500 calls a day this week.
Blum, of the Dana Inn and Marina, also has a good vibe about this week.
"I have this gut feeling," he said, "that everyone will look back at it and say, 'Hey, it was just as good as last time.' That's what I'm hoping."