Super Bowl?
Call me cynical. The name for this sports event no longer fits. Nor does it seem appropriate. In 2008, it should be called "The American sports event in which billions of dollars are spent on ridiculous things."
We have ticket prices for the Super Bowl exceeding $50,000. That's for a single seat folks! Scalpers make out quite well - reports are that at a minimum the price for a pair of scalped tickets are going for $2,000.
Las Vegas is making out nicely - regardless of who wins. The current odds show the Patriots being the favorites by 13 points. Some say that large point spread was fixed on purpose - with the hope that even more people would bet on the game. Which means that if you are a diehard Patriots fan, you would have to consider betting against your team. Unless of course, you are convinced the Pats can cover that large point spread.
Speaking of diehard Patriot fans, there is a gentleman in the Boston area offering an entire HOUSE for a pair of Super Bowl tickets. He is a developer or contractor of some sort, and is offering a beautiful fully furnished home for a decent pair of tickets. This story was on our local news the other evening. A house for 2 tickets to a sporting event?
It is estimated that the Super Bowl will generate $400 million dollars for the State of Arizona, the city of Glendale and the local businesses, hotels, bars, and restaurants within a 50 mile radius of The University of Phoenix stadium where the Super Bowl is being held.
Another estimate to consider - and this is staggering - companies and corporations will spend $750 million dollars on television advertising. A 30 second ad during the Super Bowl will cost - on the average - $2 million dollars.
Now if you are wondering where I'm headed with these numbers and facts, this is the deal. It cost me $700 dollars this week to fill my oil tank and keep the house heated for another 2 months. After paying the phone bill, groceries, satellite TV bill, and insurance, my checking account will barely clear $1,000 dollars as a balance. And I haven't included the labor or materials for the work the carpenter was doing on my house the past 3 days. To put it simply, does anyone else out there find it disturbing that all this money is floating around for a football game - while most of the rest of us are struggling to make a living and make ends meet?
I won a prize and got my picture in the local paper in 1978. Why? For making the best cardboard box representation of Super Bowl XII, between Dallas and Denver, for a third grade project. Back then, it was truly a Super Bowl. The name fit. No one was discussing money, or the odds, or advertising, or for that matter ticket scalping. We discussed the score, the players, the coaches, and looked ahead eagerly to the Sports Illustrated cover which we knew would be coming the following week in the mail. I can remember my classmates and friends battling over the Cowboys and Broncos football cards in school. (My luck was good - I took great delight in giving away nearly all of my Cowboy and Bronco cards that January - in exchange for all of their Redskin cards.) But none of us battled over money. That was the furthest thing from our minds.
I miss the Super Bowl. When it truly was a game.
Not the gambling, money spinning, greedy, advertising machine version we have now.
