‘It’s Something New and Different, This International Flavor’ for Bowl : Mexico Woos Media as Good-Time Mecca

TIJUANA —  A tobacco company picked up the tab for the bus transportation. A tequila manufacturer provided the booze and margarita mix. A race track served as the principal host. There were mariachis and lots of girls in mini-skirts, a beauty queen, blazing-hot food that sent people running for their margaritas, and, at the end of the evening, a host of journalists slurring their words.

It was a Super Bowl party, Tijuana-style.

The hoopla surrounding Super Bowl XXII arrived south of the border Wednesday. City tourism authorities, hoping to cash in on the commercial bonanza that is the Super Bowl, sponsored an all-expenses-paid, daylong junket for journalists and others in San Diego for the big game. The tequila-drenched event was in keeping with Tijuana’s image as a good-time mecca for U.S. tourists.

‘Treated Like Royalty’

“We’re being treated like royalty,” Fred Roe, a photographer from New York, commented as he walked down Avenida Revolucion, the central tourist drag. “It’s a great feeling.”

The event was the principal kickoff for what organizers here are calling Superfiesta Tijuana ‘88, timed to coincide with the Super Bowl. Officials hope that as many as 30,000 visitors who have come to San Diego for the game will also make the trip to Tijuana, spending as much as $12 million. Area businesses are spending about $100,000 to cover the costs of the various events; city officials have pledged additional police patrols.

“The impact will be great, especially in the long run,” said Alfonso Bustamante Jr., president of the Tijuana Convention and Visitors Bureau, the city’s tourism agency. “We have a good face to present.”

On this day, not as many people were there to witness the face as Bustamante might have liked. Organizers had predicted as many as 3,000 might participate; the actual number seemed closer to 500 or fewer.

But that didn’t slow down the fun.

“It’s something new and different, this international flavor for the Super Bowl,” noted Michael Cowman, a sports reporter for CNN, who stood among the exotic display of free food arrayed at Agua Caliente Racetrack, as the greyhounds raced outside. “For an area that’s so depressed, they seem to have done a good job. Someone must have money.”

While most participants seemed to have a good time, others were somewhat put off by the lavish spread of food and copious supplies of free liquor. “They try to hide the poverty here, but you can see it,” noted Tom Day, a former defensive end for the Buffalo Bills who made the trip for the Super Bowl from New York.

Day was also perturbed to learn that many of those serving food could only speak Spanish. “They told us they would speak English,” he said. “I don’t think I’d come back.”

Earlier in the day, things had started slowly, as grumbling journalists and others waited for chartered buses at San Diego’s Marriott Hotel. But the mood brightened considerably as the evening’s principal lubricant arrived.

“Margaritas,” said someone, eliciting smiles.

Once in Tijuana, a guide entered one of the chartered buses, gave a brief history of Tijuana, pointed out some of the highlights, and acknowledged that she was “dying” to get some tickets for the Super Bowl. “I had a friend who had some tickets but she got in a pretty bad accident and might not be able to go,” the guide informed the passengers.

“Did you run her over?” someone asked.

Many participants noted changes in the city since their last visits.

“You can’t even find the red-light district anymore,” said Bob Vinton, who writes for a sports medicine magazine based in Minnesota.

Caesar Salad

The day’s highlight was the Caesar salad prepared for 3,000 people by Rosa Cardini, daughter of the late Caesar Cardini, an Italian-born Tijuana resident who is credited here with inventing the unique salad. The salad was prepared in a specially constructed wooden bowl, 14 feet long and 8 feet wide, and tossed with 3-foot-long spoons and forks by a platoon of frenetic chefs.

The dish consumed 840 heads of Romaine lettuce, 1,400 ounces of garlic-flavored oil, the juice of 175 lemons, 350 cups of croutons, 980 ounces of imported Parmesan cheese, and 840 eggs.

However, there were no anchovies.

“My father never used anchovies,” Rosa Cardini explained. “Somebody else came up with that idea.”

On the streets of Tijuana, there was considerable curiosity about the hoopla. A four-block stretch of Avenida Revolucion will be closed to vehicular traffic from 6-10 p.m. through Sunday in honor of the game.

“American football?” asked a puzzled Jorge Rafael Cristerna, 16, a Tijuana resident. “Do they kick the ball?”