The prize.

The ads! The Harbaugh family! Beyonce! (We love her non-lipsynched rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at the Superbowl press conference.) There’s even a football game. (We’re from Northern California, so Go Forty-Niners!)

Where do you want to be when the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco Forty-Niners clash on Sunday? We at Overnight New York suggest a New York City hotel bar geared up for the big event with soaring screens, buckets of wings, mountains of sliders and gallons of beer. Here’s how to transport yourself to the Big Easy in the Big Apple.

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Rory McIlroy golfing at the Burj al Arab.

It’s hard to grab the US sports world’s attention the same day that a) Team USA wins basketball gold and b) the Olympics closing ceremony unfurls.

But an emphatic 13-under-par 275 at the PGA will do it. And on Sunday, 23-year-old Rory McIlroy, the affable Northern Ireland golfer, did it sporting a white cap emblazoned with the logo of Jumeirah hotels, the Dubai-based chain that includes New York’s Jumeirah Essex House.

This was Jumeirah’s second widely televised win using McIlroy’s head as a billboard (he pocketed the 2011 US Open touting Jumeirah).   (more…)

Ring in the new!

We love the Olympics regardless of where they occur, but we’re especially jazzed that they’re in London this year. As the capital city of a country steeped in theater – Shakespeare, anyone? — London knows how to put on a show, with royals and rock stars to boot. So bring it on!

Most New York hotels will tune their bar TVs to Olympic events, including the Ritz Carlton New York Battery Park, the Warwick New York and the Marriott New York Downtown (16 screens and counting so you can watch the Mets or Yankees when you’ve OD’d on wrestling).

But a handful are going for the gold with special screens, drinks and meals. Here a sampling of what we found. (more…)

His brother’s couch is history. Jeremy Lin, the white-hot, Harvard-educated New York Knicks point guard who less than a month ago was a) an NBA cast-off lucky to land with the Knicks and b) homeless has upped his domestic game and moved into our kind of place – a hotel. (more…)

Spot Suite deck in action.

It’s serendipity that Fashion Week and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show hit town at the same time this year. Show dogs are the canine version of supermodels. And like the leggy creatures strutting the catwalk at Lincoln Center, the furry creatures running the ring at Madison Square Garden, February 13 and 14, travel relentlessly.

“We’re in hotels 50 weeks a year,” says Debbie Kennedy, an owner of Wooly Bully, a personable, 26-pound French Bulldog who, at four, is a dog show veteran and winner of Best of Breed at Westminster in 2011.

On the other end of the leash Wooly Bully sniffed the bright green turf carpeting a deck at the Affinia Manhattan, a 1920s hotel that has the good fortune to stand across the street from Madison Square Garden. (more…)

The ads! The half-time show! Madonna! We love football (Go Giants), but it’s not the only reason to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday.

Where do you want to be when the Giants and the Patriots go helmet to helmet? We suggest a hotel bar that’s geared up for the big showdown. We found six  – three in midtown and three downtown — where you can settle in with a pitcher of beer and a bucket of wings and drink in the early February festivities, be it the game, the sideshow or both, on a big screen (or two, or 17). (more…)

Jumeirah's Rory McIlroy at the US Open.

For anyone who follows golf, June 19, 2011 will be remembered as Rory McIlroy Day, thanks to the charming, unaffected 22-year-old golfer from Northern Ireland who won the US Open with a spectacular 16-under-par 268.

Since high-end golf pros double as billboards at tournaments, the US Open’s other big winner was Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts, which counts McIlroy as its Global Brand Ambassador. A winning golfer sporting a logo at a major is the next best thing to a TV ad during the Superbowl. Small wonder the Dubai-based hotel group, whose properties include Dubai’s iconic Burj al Arab and New York’s Jumeirah Essex House, prominently featured McIlroy and his trophy on its Web site the day after the big win.

Jumeirah’s portfolio includes international golf properties in addition to hotels. (more…)