Locals happy to have the city back as Super Bowl event clean ups begin around Phoenix

PHOENIX - Now that Super Bowl LVII is over, Monday marks the start of the cleanup process. 

Locals and businesses in the area have mixed emotions and are sad to see the excitement come to an end, but are also relieved to have their city back – and with a little less traffic.

After more than a year of planning for the Super Bowl and months of designing, building and constructing, everything is being torn down.

"It’s symbolic, you know. It’s over. It’s being trucked away," Marcus Romaniuk said.

Neighbors near Margaret T. Hance Park say they can finally resume their quiet evening walks. At one point on Super Bowl Sunday, there were tens of thousands of fans at the park.

"It’s definitely very peaceful. It feels like there's more locals just walking their dogs. We saw a bunch of people with the jerseys and everything last week, but now it’s just like the normal neighborhood crew," a woman named Rachel said.

Several events were happening across the Valley, but a couple of the biggest were in downtown Phoenix.

"All of a sudden it is just completely congested. There’s cars zooming everywhere, it’s harder to walk to get to places I need to," Romaniuk said.

The Super Bowl Experience at Hance Park and the Phoenix Convention Center drew millions to the city, and for local brewery Arizona Wilderness, they killed it on the business front.

"It was really cool, it was definitely great for business, good experience, good to learn from," says Frank Gervasi, general manager of Arizona Wilderness.

They were right in the middle of all the action. 

"The weekend was insanely busy for us. Saturday was our busiest day ever," he said.

They drew in the most sales ever since opening – a good boost for business and a great time to meet new customers.

"Typically a normal week for us, we will get Thursday and Friday deliveries, we will normally get about 28 to 36 kegs. We were doing about 48 to 54 kegs per day on Thursday and Friday," Gervasi said.

As everyone leaves town, things can now quiet down. Clean up will likely take a few days.

As for the huge cactus in Hance Park, that will live on and the Arizona Super Bowl Committee is exploring where around town it will set its roots for good.

More reports:

• Super Bowl LVII top moments that happened on, off and above the field
• Arizona hands off Super Bowl to Las Vegas
• Sky Harbor travel expected to reach peak as Super Bowl, WM Phoenix Open fans head home

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