LOCAL Houston | The City Guide MARCH 2015 | Page 45

Local March 2015FINAL.qxp_002houston 2/21/15 3:42 PM Page 45

SALLIE SARGENT
BOASTS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL JOBS IN SPORTS

IT’S 2015 – A WOMAN WORKING IN SPORTS ISN’T SO RARE ANYMORE. TO BE A WOMAN ASSIGNED
ONE OF THE BIGGEST JOBS IN ALL OF SPORTS, NOW THAT IS RARE.

MEET SALLIE SARGENT, THE PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE SUPER BOWL HOST COMMITTEE FOR SUPER BOWL LI to be held at NRG
Stadium in FEBRUARY 2017. Sargent comes to the table with more than 28 years of sports marketing and special
event management experience. Her job is all encompassing; she is responsible for managing all logistical components leading up to the game including sponsorship, hospitality, volunteers, security and fan events. Her job
involves keeping everyone happy, including locals, visitors and don’t forget city officials. Oh, and the NFL!
When it comes to Sargent’s actual job description and lengthy to-do list, she laughs. “The NFL doesn’t just give
you a template – you have to create it,” she says. Which is where her almost three decades of knowledge will
come into play. Although she’s worked on five different Super Bowls, this will be Sargent’s first time seeing it from
the bid process (2012) all the way through to execution (2017). No pressure. “My job is to touch every
aspect of anything and everything associated with the Super Bowl with two exceptions: I
don’t have anything to do with the [actual] game and I don’t have anything to do with the halftime entertainment,”
Sargent explains. Everything else is in her capable hands or in the hands of the team she selects to help make it
all happen.
“The challenge that is most paramount in my mind is the traffic – traffic management and transportation – making
sure we do a really good job of having kind of a marriage of public a