A few New Orleans hoteliers have reneged on promises to set aside hotel rooms for the National Football League’s Super BowlXXXI, a senior NFL executive and New Orleans tourism executives said.

And tourism officials said they feared the conflict is creating ill will with the football league, which could make future Super Bowls more difficult to land.

. . . According to Jim Steeg, director ofspecial eventsfor the NFL, several hoteliers have decided to ignore the promise and sell about 400 [of approximately 15,000] rooms reserved for the NFL.

[SOURCE: Stewart Yerton, “Some Hotels Stiff NFL for Rooms,” (New Orleans) Times-Picayune (September 4, 1996), p. C-l. Reprinted by permission of The Times-Picayune Publishing Corp.]

a. Discuss the strategy of the hotels reneging on their promise to the NFL. Do you think that these hotels are considering the long-run implications of their actions?

b. Is it possible for a few hotels to hurt the larger community in which they operate? Flow or why?

c. Suggest an alternative strategy to the managers of these hotels.