By: Lily Smith

March 31, 2025

Lily Smith is a second-year undergraduate at BGSU from Oregon, Ohio. She is majoring in Sport Management with a Marketing minor. In her spare time, she is an intern in the BGSU Athletics Marketing department, a BGSU Campus Tour Guide, and an avid reader. She is passionate about all things women’s sports, and all things women in sports.

Just about a month ago, I returned to campus from my trip to New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX. I went on the trip with 23 other members of the BGSU Sport Management Alliance (SMA). We travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana to work various different events surrounding Super Bowl LIX. 

Day 1: Travel Trauma

Our first day of the trip was mainly a travel day. Our flight to New Orleans had a short layover in Denver. Although we were only in the Denver airport for about 30 minutes, I still got to see the mountains for the first time. 

Things turned downhill after landing at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. From our flight into Denver and then into New Orleans, I ended up getting altitude sickness from the rapid elevation change. Due to the traumatics of those few hours, I don’t remember much of our arrival into New Orleans. I know we did get to our hotel around 5pm, and I received about 30 phone calls from my mom making sure I was still alive.

The rest of the group was able to go to Opening Night, which from my understanding was similar to the Opening Ceremony at the Olympics. I stayed home and tried to recover from the day. They were able to see players, hear interviews, and overall celebrate New Orleans, and Super Bowl week. 

Day 2: Beignets and Exploring the City

After about 12-13 hours of sleep, a very long, very hot shower, and a Pedialyte, I was finally back on my feet, sorta. It is Tuesday now! The only thing we had scheduled for the day was training for one of our upcoming shifts. We were able to pick up our required credentials for the NFL, and our uniforms for the events we were working. 

We were also able to go to Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter and try some fresh beignets. Let me just say, they are delicious. Beignets are definitely something I am not going to eat outside of New Orleans, nothing will compare. We were able to do some small sightseeing, and just take in the overall experience of New Orleans. We went to Louis Armstrong Park, and then did a little shopping at the Nike Store. Then we went back to the hotel to change and refresh for dinner. I got that beautiful plate of shrimp alfredo pictured below.

Day 3: Botanical Gardens and First Shift

The next morning, we went to the City Park Botanical Gardens. It was very pretty in the gardens, and they had a lot of fascinating art and sculpture installations. The gardens had this precious cat, who did not want anything to do with us, but was very cute sunning itself.

After some fresh air, we headed to the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to work our first shift at the Super Bowl Experience, presented by Panini. The first day, some of the other members of SMA and I worked the 40 yard dash for the kids’ rendition of the NFL Combine. We had a turf area that had 40 yards marked off, including a finish line and a foam area for participants to dive into at the end. Lots of kids wanted to race their friends and siblings. We also had adults and teenagers wanting to get in on the fun as well.

One of the main components of the whole event was making sure attendants of the event had the NFL OnePass app. This was their way of signing a waiver for the different games, but also a good way for the NFL to track participation rates. At each activation, attendants had to scan their app, so a lot of my job at the 40 yard dash station was making sure participants were ready to go before the race. It was definitely a learning curve for the fans, and myself. 

Day 4: LSU and Kylie Kelce

The next day, we went on a visit to Louisiana State University. This was one of my favorite things we did on the whole trip. In one of my previous entries, I did a deep dive on LSU’s Kim Mulkey. She is the head coach for their women’s basketball team. At the visit, we were able to see their basketball arena, the women’s locker room, and some practice facilities. Overall, you could feel the energy in those buildings. As a fan of women’s basketball, this was a magical experience for me. We were also able to go onto the field in Tiger Stadium, and see the whole LSU Football experience. It was amazing to be walking around a campus that in the past and even currently, has had so many legends of the sport industry walking around it as well.

After our visit to LSU, my group and I were able to go into the city and go to the Super Bowl Experience as fans. Some of the other students had shifts working at the airport volunteering with the Host Committee, but the rest of us took time to do homework and explore the city. While we were walking to the entrance of the convention center from our parking lot, we happened to meet Kylie Kelce! This was so exciting to me, as I have become a fan of hers in the last year or so. She was so nice, and definitely the best “celebrity” encounter I have ever had, not that I have had too many though. While exploring the event for ourselves, we were able to see Micah Parsons (Dallas Cowboys) and Drake Maye (New England Patriots) playing pickleball. This was a really cool activation put on by the sporting equipment brand Franklin, and their owners.

Day 5: The Lombardi Trophy

On Friday, we had another shift at the Super Bowl Experience. This time, I worked the Lombardi Trophy area. This was one of my favorite things I did the whole trip. It was so surreal to be around the trophy and seeing fans interact and take pictures with it. The Lombardi Trophy is such an iconic symbol of the Super Bowl and the empire that the NFL has built.

Day 6: Our Last Super Bowl Experience Shift

After a long shift being at the Lombardi Trophy’s best friend, we went back to the hotel and got some much needed rest before some free time and then another shift at the Super Bowl Experience. This day, I worked some of the pickle ball events I mentioned earlier. I was not able to take any pictures this day, so I don’t have anything to show for that part of my shift. Halfway through working pickleball, I got moved to a different station where I was working another photo opportunity. This was hands down my favorite thing I worked at the Super Bowl Experience. It was a big SBLIX logo that fans were able to sit or stand on, and take pictures with. It was amazing because I got to connect and talk to so many people. I was able to speak with locals, who thought I had an accent, but also people from all over the country (and the world!) who just shared the love of football.

Day 7: Super Bowl Sunday

After losing my voice and a good night’s sleep, we were off to the game day shift! Our day started bright and early when we had to go to our parking and credential pickup site. All of the credential pickups we did throughout the week were so high tech in terms of facial recognition. It felt like I was in some sort of other reality. We were then shuttled into downtown New Orleans, where our staffing hosts fed us brunch and gave us training reminders for our upcoming shift.

After our bellies were full of delicious local food, we were sent out for our shift. I was stationed on Poydras Drive, which was one of the main entrances into the stadium. My job was helping people with directions and just answering general questions. There were several different tailgate groups that either came with tickets or were a premium, so we had to help guide patrons to those events. One of my favorite things from this time was starting famous E-A-G-L-E-S chants with Eagles fans. Some of the other BGSU people were stationed with me, so we were trying to count all of the NFL teams’ jerseys we saw walking into the game. We did end up seeing all 32 teams represented!

A few hours into our shift, things got cut short due to weather and safety concerns. We had to go back into our home base for our staffing hosts, but were able to watch the game together as a big group of volunteers. After things cleared up, we were able to take pictures in front of the Super Dome just before halftime.

Day 8: Tulane University and Seafood Boil

Monday morning, we had a visit at Tulane University and their athletic department. Tulane had such a cool campus since it is right in the heart of New Orleans. We were able to meet with some of their operations staff and see some of their facilities. The Chiefs had actually practiced on their iconic blue turf football field before the game, so everything was being torn down due to the extra security measures put in place. The Chiefs also requested to practice on real grass, so they had to put a floor down over the blue turf and then put all the pieces down for it to be a grass field.

Later that day, we returned to the hotel to start to pack up and rest before our travels home. To round off our time in NOLA, we decided to get a seafood boil. This was one of my favorite things I ate the whole trip. We got a standard boil, but got calamari, frog legs, oysters, and hush puppies on the side.

Day 9: Travels Home and Last Thoughts

Our last day we woke up, packed up our hotel rooms, and headed off to the airport. After a long day of travel, we landed back in Detroit around 10pm Tuesday night. Overall, I had a great time getting to experience such a great city. Working Super Bowl LIX is something I will never forget, and it truly was a once in a lifetime experience. I learned so much, and I will cherish these memories and knowledge forever. I am so thankful to BGSU and the Sport Management Alliance for making this experience possible for me! I will cherish it forever!