By Rochelle Olson

Minneapolis Star Tribune

SAN FRANCISCO — The pre-Super Bowl 50 festivities have rolled out over the past week in the milelong stretch along Market Street to the Moscone Center from the Embarcadero, the picturesque departure point for ferries to Alcatraz and Sausalito across San Francisco Bay.

As Sunday’s game drew closer, the size of the crowds at the epicenter of the NFL’s premier event grew from a gentle stream to a flood that turned downtown roads into a driver’s nightmare. It was a stampede to downtown San Francisco, a city big enough that residents have been able to escape to the Mission District, the Haight and the Castro to avoid the tourists and the attendant jamboree.

When Minneapolis’ Super Bowl turn comes in 2018, all of that activity will be concentrated in a smaller, colder city — stark differences being carefully prepared for by Minnesota planners.

Minnesotans wondering what to expect then can start by picturing a longer, stronger, louder version of the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Target Field.

“It is going to stand out more,” Super Bowl Host Committee CEO Maureen Bausch said of the 2018 event, adding, “I worked at the Mall of America for 25 years; people love crowds.”

There will be crowds. And longer lines than Minnesotans are accustomed to, and guests streaming through hotel lobbies to and from parties, receptions and rooms booked long ago at premium rates north of $400 a night. Celebrity sightings will be abundant. Bausch said she stood next to Beyoncé, saw Jamie Foxx and posed for a picture with Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy.

Two public attractions bookended this year’s pregame action. Super Bowl City took over the northern end of the stretch of Market Street, down by the bay. And the NFL Experience sat in and around Moscone Center. Over the week, 1 million to 1.5 million visitors were expected to stop by those venues. That’s many more than the 70,000 fans who will go to the game.

1 million in Minneapolis before fans

Minnesota’s crew is planning for 1 million visitors from the Saturday to the Thursday before the 2018 game. Those are the days before gameday fans arrive, said Super Bowl Host Committee COO Dave Haselman.

“We’ll manage; we’ve got some phenomenal ideas,” he said Saturday.

Bausch, too, is unfazed by the numbers. As the chief executive at Mall of America, she was accustomed to 150,000 shoppers on a routine Saturday.

Throughout the week, Super Bowl City, a sponsor-driven extravaganza, grew more crowded.