Sports

Miami International Airport has soccer fever – and soccer art

Airports, Art, Sports, , , ,

Miami International Airport – the major connecting airport for thousands of fans heading to the World Cup in Brazil – is deep into soccer fever.

The airport’s own ‘soccer season’ kicked off last Thursday with the unveiling of a soccer-themed art show called Show Your Colors that features original artwork by more than a dozen students from the Design and Architecture Senior High (DASH) located in Miami’s Design District.

Here’s a sample:

mIA SOCCER ART

Look for this and other artwork in the airport’s North Terminal, by Gate D30, which serves many of the American Airlines flights bound for Brazil.

In addition to Show Your Colors, during the coming weeks MIA will be hosting interactive pop-up soccer fields with professional soccer players, musical performances with a Brazilian beat and Nintendo Wii Soccer game stations. Fans will also be able to buy World Cup gear and find a variety of special soccer-related offers at the airport shops and restaurants.

I bet there are plenty of bars with big screens showing the matches as well.

MIA GATEWAY LOGO

At DFW Airport: play soccer, win soda

Free Stuff, Sports, , ,

Miami International Airport has World Cup fever and it appears Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is sort of soccer-focused too.

DFW COKE MACHINE

A new-fangled Pepsi Interactive Vending Machine in Terminal D at DFW Airport is giving thirsty travelers willing to show off their soccer skills a chance to earn points and win a can of soda.

DFW Pesi can

No purchase is necessary to play with the machine, which makes use of Microsoft Kinect technology and challenges users to keep a virtual soccer ball in the air for 30-seconds while moving through a series of skills challenges.

There are twenty of these machines worldwide and, for now, this is the only one set up in North America.

Whales, sales & soccer at MIA airport

Air Travel, Airports, Art, Shopping, Sports, , , ,

All sorts of news this week from Miami International Airport (MIA).

There’s a new exhibition of photography and video documenting the migration of whales from Alaska and Hawaii to Latin American, including Argentina, Columbia, Mexico, Panama and Peru.

Look for Giants/Rutas de Gigantes in the airport’s South Terminal international greeter’s lobby.

MIA WHALE Jason Isley

Jason Isley/Scubazoo/Fundación Albatros Media

This week MIA also opened an online store to sell caps and mugs with the airport’s classic logo.

MIA MUG“We actually got the idea from a celebrity we saw online wearing an imitation cap with our logo,” said MIA spokesman Greg Chin. “After we tracked down the store and took legal action against them to stop selling the merchandise, our Airport Director got the idea to sell the real merchandise ourselves!”

And, to celebrate the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, which kicks off June 12 in Sao Paulo, MIA has an ambitious line-up of activities for all the fans that will be flying to Brazil through MIA.

 

MIA GATEWAY LOGO

From late May through mid-July, the airport will be hosting interactive pop-up soccer fields with professional soccer players, soccer-inspired artwork by local students from Miami’s Design and Architecture Senior High, surprise musical performances (with a Brazilian beat) and Nintendo Wii Soccer game stations.  Shops will be selling soccer team souvenirs and gear and many of the shops will be having special offers.

Golfing at airports

Airports, Sports, , ,

golfing

I’m getting ready to fly to Hong Kong, where Sky City Nine Eagles Golf Course is one of the much-celebrated amenities at the Hong Kong International Airport.

If you’ve got a while to hang around before your flight, playing a round of golf is a great diversion. But there’s no need to go all the way to Hong Kong to play golf at an airport.

Several airports in the United States have golf courses on airport property that offer golfers the thrill – and challenge – of trying to concentrate on the game while giant planes roar overhead.

Metropolitan Golf Links is right next door to the Oakland International Airport. And the course at Huntsville International Airport seems quite popular: here’s a photo Cathy Mayer sent out on Instagram of her 14-year-old son, Hayden, playing golf at the airport during a school match.

Golfing HSV

Daytona International Speedway reaches for the sky

Sports, , , ,
Daytona history photo

Auto-to-plane transfer stunt on Daytona Beach. 1921. State Library and Archives of Florida, via Flickr Commons.

They’ve come a long way in Daytona since the days when stock cars were raced on the beach and catching a plane was this easy.

Now they race the cars at Daytona International Speedway – the site of last Sunday’s Daytona 500 and a slew of other big races.

And now that NASCAR’s biggest and most prestigious race is over, work can resume on the major renovation underway at the Speedway, which first opened in 1959.

“In the sports world, you’re seeing massive investment in infrastructure, specifically new football, baseball and basketball venues,” said Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood. “And if you’ve been to a new arena and then come to a property like ours that’s more than 50 years old, there’s a stark difference.”

“We decided we’d have to make improvements,” said Chitwood. “And instead of Band-aiding this or that, we decided to go all in.”

The $400 million, 2½-year project should be finished in 2016.

DAYTONA Rising, as the upgrade project is called, includes the rebuilding of the front stretch of the grandstand, which seats more than 100,000 and runs for nearly a mile along the 2.5-mile tri-oval track.

New Daytona International Speedway

Source: Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Rising is a complete overhaul of the racetrack facilities to offer more opportunities for both fans and sponsors.

 

When complete, there will be five new entrances leading fans into a taller grandstand with three new concourse levels and football field-sized social areas. New amenities will include the speedway’s first escalators, 14 new elevators, twice as many restrooms, five dozen luxury track-side suites, more than 101,000 wider, more comfortable grandstand seats and technology for watching the action and telling others about it.

“The younger generation, especially, expects all these things in sports arenas now, and they expect to be able to be totally connected,” said Chitwood, “So our goal is to go from being a race track to being a motor sports stadium.”

The upgrades also appear to dovetail with some of NASCAR’s goals, which include expanding beyond the mostly white, male fan base and appealing to the millennial generation and a more diverse fan base.

“We’re investing in a lot of new technology in the sport to attract the new fan and this new facility does that as well with all digital innovations that will be inclusive and encourage more fan engagement,” said Brent Dewar, NASCAR’s chief operating officer.

The upgrades extend beyond the speedway grounds: The Daytona International Speedway Corp. has partnered with Jacoby Development to build ONE DAYTONA, a $1.2 billion, 181-acre, mixed-used entertainment, dining and retail center across from the speedway that will operate year-round.

“ONE DAYTONA is not ‘Speedway Station.’ We won’t have checkerboard sidewalks,” said Brian Leary, managing director of Jacoby Development. “But it will come alive during activities at the track and provide an alternative and option for those attending the events.”

Fans who do attend events at the speedway “are a little different than those that attend other sports events,” said Leary. “They come earlier, stay later and travel farther to do so,” and spend an estimated $1.2 billion in the Daytona community throughout the year.

“I understand there will be a promenade and lots of technological improvements,” said Berry Chatas, 45, of Winter Haven, Fla., who attends several NASCAR events at Daytona International Speedway each year with his wife Carol, 44. “But Daytona will always be Daytona and full of race history. The improvements— especially those wider seats—will just make it cooler.”

NASCAR Nationwide Quailiyfing session

(My story about upgrades to Daytona International Speedway first appeared on CNBC Road Warrior in a slightly different version.)

 

Alaska Airlines hosts Russell’s 12th Fan Airlift

Sports, , , ,
go_russell sm

Courtesy Alaska Airlines

 

There are plenty of tailgate parties going on for Super Bowl Sunday, but perhaps only one that took place 35,000 feet in the air.

63,000 residents of Oregon, Alaska and Washington entered a contest hosted by Alaska Airlines and Seattle NFL quarterback Russell Wilson for a chance to win two seats on a party plane headed to New York, two nights lodging in the city and a viewing party in midtown Manhattan.

The 56 winners and their guests got to fly to New York on Saturday on a flight dubbed Russell’s 12th Fan Airlift. Along for the ride: the winners of a mileage auction for five pairs of first class seats that, with the airline’s mileage match, means that six million miles will be donated to Seattle Children’s Hospital.

I got to go along for the ride:

Here are some photos from the trip:

ALASKA 1

Before boarding, everyone got t-shirts and a chance to have a photo snapped with a variety of props. This was the favorite.

The props came out during the flight as well:

alaska 3

Meals in-flight included a snack back with Skittles and a Volume 12 chocolate bar and breakfast served by Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden:

ALASK AIRLINES CEO SERVING BREAKFAST (courtesy Alaska Air)

And, after a trivia contest, drawings were held for two pair of Super Bowl tickets. Here’s one of the lucky winners:

Alaskas 2

Football fun at Newark Liberty Airport

Sports, ,

football

Newark Liberty International is pretty excited about all the people who will be passing through for the Super Bowl and has lined up a full schedule of special events in the terminals and discount offers in the shops.

Here are some of the highlights:

Terminal A

Live Music on Level 1 & Food Court 9am – 7pm from January 27 – February 3rd by various local New Jersey musicians.

Fan Zone on Level 3 with Football Toss, Foosball Tables, Massage Chairs, Hi Boy Table & Interactive games

Beer Gardens Gates A10-18, A 20-28 & A 30-39

Terminal B

Live Music on Level 2, 3 & in the Food Court 9am – 7pm from January 27- February 3rd, by various local New Jersey musicians from NJPAC

Fan Zone on Level 3 with Football Toss, Foosball Tables, Massage Chairs, Hi Boy Table, Charging Stations & interactive game

There will be also pop-up shops with official Super Bowl licensed merchandise and many shops will be offering discounts for those wearing football jerseys.  For hungry fans, the food courts in both the A and B Terminals will be open for 24 hours on Sunday Feb 2 into Monday Feb 3.

In Terminal C, there’s a full schedule of food sampling, entertainment and events as well as a Football Frenzy photo booth in C1 food court on the 31st from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a green screen so passengers can choose from one of three football related backgrounds. Here’s a link to the Terminal C events.

Flight searches may predict the Super Bowl match-up

Sports, , , ,
football

Courtesy Miami University Libraries via Flickr Commons

There are all manner of predictions about which NFL teams will meet at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Feb. 2 for Super Bowl XLVIII and which team will leave the field hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

But online travel agency Expedia suggests that spikes in Super Bowl weekend travel searches offer a good indication of which teams fans believe will actually end up in the championship game.

“For the eight remaining teams in the playoffs, demand for flights into New York is the strongest out of Seattle, followed by San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham and Denver,” said Jeremy Boore, travel analyst for Expedia.com.

Though Super Bowl favorites the Denver Broncos “had a slight hiccup” in week 15 of the season after losing to the San Diego Chargers, searches for flights into New York from that area have grown “at about the same rate as their probability of playing in the big game,” Boore said.

The probabilities, from Massey-Peabody Analytics, are determined by teams’ Massey-Peabody ranking and home-field advantage, as well as by chance.

The Bronco’s favored opponent, the Seattle Seahawks, “had a similar hiccup” in week 16 after losing to the Arizona Cardinals. However, Boore said, they not only remain the odds-on favorite to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl “but have the highest volume of searches for flights into the NYC area for each of the past eight weeks of the season.”

And though the San Francisco 49ers have just a 5 percent probability of making another appearance in the final game, according to Massey-Peabody analysis, on Expedia the team has the second-most searches for flights into NYC over Super Bowl weekend. That correlates with many pundits’ laying odds that the 49ers will win the game.

Of course, any fan planning to be at the Super Bowl in person will soon have to stop searching for fares and actually buy a plane ticket and a game ticket, and find a place to stay.

Travelocity reports that for Jan. 31 to Feb. 3, round-trip airfares below $385 are currently available between New York-New Jersey area airports and most all Super Bowl-hopeful cities.

On Jan. 6, fares could be found from Denver for $266, New Orleans for $216, Charlotte for $299, San Diego for $379, Boston for $199, Seattle for $385, San Francisco for $318 and from Indianapolis for $358.

It’s no surprise that hotel rates for Super Bowl weekend are extremely high in the areas around the stadium, and are up appreciably in New York City compared with the same weekend in 2013 and to other weekends in February 2014.

In New York, “expect to pay an average of $300 per night with restrictions and minimum stay requirements,” said Courtney Scott, Travelocity’s senior editor. “Although cheaper rates may be found by booking a flight and hotel vacation, or by searching hotels across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the New Jersey metro area.”

Hotels closest to the Super Bowl venue are the ones charging the most, “and there have been reports of a hotel in New Jersey charging $1,000 a night,” said John Fox, of hotel advisory firm PKF Consulting.

But people don’t just go to the Super Bowl for the football. Many related events will be held in Manhattan, including a four-day celebration in Times Square.

“Remember, New York City has almost 100,000 hotel rooms,” Fox said. “That’s considerably more than most past host cities. And the city is already geared up to welcome more than 55 million visitors, overall, this year.”

While the Super Bowl may push up nightly hotel tabs in the city to match those during the peak holiday weeks in December, Fox said, “there should be plenty of options of finding a place to stay.”

(My story about getting ready to head to the Super Bowl first appeared on CNBC Road Warrior)