LGBT-owned businesses tackle Super Bowl contracts
Bay Area Reporter, by Matthew S. Bajko, December 10, 2015

One company that has been able to take advantage of the Super Bowl-related business opportunities is Got Light, named in June to the San Francisco Business Times’ first-ever Top 25 LGBT-owned Business List. Founded by gay co-owners Jon Retsky and Russell Holt, the company supplies lighting as well as audiovisual services, staging and other needs at special events.

“We are proud to be a supplier of Super Bowl 50 through the Business Connect Program. It has been a very exiting project for all of us,” said Retsky, whose company worked on the Super Bowl 50 host committee’s kick-off event held November 10, 2014 at the San Francisco Ferry Building.

In a phone interview this week, Retsky told the B.A.R. that it took some time before his company started to field calls about additional Super Bowl-related business.

“To be honest, when we were first connected to the program we were not flooded with calls. I said at the time, ‘What’s going on here? Where are all the calls?’ Slowly but surely the calls started coming in,” he said. “Today, we get on average one phone call a day it feels like.”

Not only is he fielding requests to bid on events the NFL and the local host committee are putting on, but also from Super Bowl sponsors such as Visa and major news media organizations like CNN and ESPN that will be setting up camp in town for nearly three weeks in order to cover the Super Bowl.

Got Light is also the exclusive provider to the Ferry Building, and due to its proximity to the Super Bowl fan village and views of the bay, many companies want to hold their events inside the historic bayside structure.

“That is becoming a hot spot. Lots of people are asking about doing events there because it is so central to everything,” said Retsky.

All of the LGBT-owned businesses expect their relationships they are building through working on the Super Bowl will generate future opportunities once the festivities wrap up.

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