MIAMI _ The best seat at Super Bowl 54 isn't on the 50-yard line. It's not in the owner's box, either.
The best seat in the house belongs to Denise Ammon and three friends.
They won't have to worry about traffic, parking or anything else on Super Bowl Sunday. That's because they'll be waking up inside a suite at Hard Rock Stadium.
The emergency room doctor was selected as the winner of Courtyard by Marriott's Super Bowl Sleepover contest. Ammon and her friends will spend Saturday night in a suite transformed into a Courtyard hotel guest room, then watch the game from there as well.
"I'm still speechless and in shock," Ammon said by phone from California.
The social media contest asked contestants to post a photo or a story about a "game-changing friendship."
Courtyard's sleepover idea originated about five years ago. The company was nearly a decade into its partnership with the NFL but felt something else was missing.
"What else could we do to bring people closer to the game?" Courtyard by Marriott executive Michael Dail remembered thinking.
Then came the idea to convert a box into a hotel suite.
"You are in the stadium before any of the teams, coaches, players, fans arrive," Dail said. "You have the whole place to yourself."
Five years later, and the contest has taken off. With Miami, Courtyard wanted to go bigger and better. It's the biggest suite yet, and partnerships give the room a real hotel feel.
"Now we've got the food and the cocktails, the beverages," Dail said. "We've got a Microsoft Xbox in there. We've got some Bose stuff. There's a little Alexa thing on the nightstand."
That's not all.
"There will be some surprises, I'm told, that Super Bowl Sunday," said former Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, who works in the team's front office.
When asked about the surprises, a smiling Marino quipped, "I could share it but then I might have to hurt you."
Marino had clearly been sworn to secrecy. Dail obviously had not.
"Maybe one of their favorite NFL quarterbacks will come in to greet them or they'll have breakfast with coffee and in walks a wide receiver," he said.
Ammon, of course, will just be happy to be there. She had previously attended only one NFL game. And while her beloved New Orleans Saints didn't make it to the Super Bowl this time, the California resident wasn't shy about who she'll be cheering for on Feb. 2.
"I had a huge Raiders and Niners influence growing up in my household so I'm now rooting for the Niners."
