NBC2 SPORTS BLOG - South Florida goes Super
Despite lousy seasons for the Buccaneers and Dolphins... Super Bowl fever is still sweeping South Florida in advance of February 4th's Bears-Colts tilt in Miami.
As the game nears, my personal awe of the event is growing after watching the organization of the event develop, and the amount of money someone will end up seeing once the dust clears.
I can't stand when I read a media blog that consists mostly of the author complaining about how hard it is to do his or her job. I always do my best not to complain about the day-to-day rigors of covering the world of sports.
That said, from the outside looking in... it's likely people have no idea what it takes to try to cover the Super Bowl.
As you know, Super Bowl XLI is set to go down February 4th across the Alley in Miami. Since it's right in our backyard, we're planning some coverage to take viewers inside the happenings over at Dolphin Stadium. On our end, securing things like media credentials, hotels, equipment, satellite space, shooting locations (and many, many other smaller details) has turned out to be an incredible challenge.
I'm not saying all this to complain, we're confident the work we put in to cover the game will translate into some good insight for viewers who aren't able to be in Miami for all the events leading up to the big game (be sure to tune in Friday and Saturday at 6 and 11 before the game!). The point I'm making is that the NFL's Super undertaking each season is simply amazing.
We're spinning in circles just trying to get five people in two cars with two cameras and an editing system to Miami for a couple days of story gathering and live coverage. Sounds easy, but I can tell you, it isn't.
For their Championship game, the NFL has the eyes of the world focused on a single game on a single day in a single stadium. Again, sounds pretty simple, right? But when you mix in thousands of media from hundreds of outlets at scores of game-related events scattered among dozens of hotels for a single game... it's a staggering task to organize. Yet the NFL manages to do it, and do it well. It amazes me how well organized everything appears to be. I've made at least a dozen calls to different people with the NFL, the SB XLI committee or the Media Services people... and every time they were clearly busy, but were pleasant, kind and helpful. It's no wonder the NFL is the world's most popular league, and that the Super Bowl is the world's most revered event.
All that hype ... and the supposed cash influx that goes with it... are prime reasons why cities fall all over themselves to woo the NFL hoping to land a Super Bowl. With Super Bowl XLI this February, South Florida begins a run of three Super Bowls in four years. After visiting Glendale, Arizona in 2008... the Big Game returns to Florida for XLIII in Tampa in 2009, then back to Miami for XLIV in 2010.
(A few Miami SB Facts:
Super Bowl XLI will be the record-tying (New Orleans) ninth Super Bowl played in the Miami area. Super Bowl XLI will be the fourth Super Bowl played at Dolphins Stadium. The other five Miami Super Bowls were played at the Orange Bowl.)
So the big question for everyday football fans in South Florida... 'What do I get out of all this'?
Well... unless you have a business with interest in the immediate area (a bar, restaurant or hotel near the game), or have a whole lot of disposable income to spend on a couple tickets and a hotel... not much.
The Super Bowl doesn't directly feed all that money into everyday citizens pockets. At least with the Olympics, sport's other big-time cash-cow, cities and regions can get infrastructural, architectural or in some cases political improvement from serving as the host. The Super Bowl makes a lot of money for caterers, hotels, bars... anyone in the hospitality industry. There isn't much temporary work created as most of the people who work for the NFL or the Host Committee are volunteers.
As for actually getting close to Miami on Super Bowl weekend... you'd better be prepared to open your wallet. A check of three major hotel websites (Orbitz, Expedia, Hotwire) shows hotels may be the biggest winners in the Super Bowl financial derby. Every website threw up a disclaimer as soon as I entered in "Miami" saying it was Super Bowl weekend and that rooms were scarce and expensive. They said most hotels are imposing four-night minimums on guests staying that weekend... forcing you to book Thursday through Sunday nights if you want a room.
So did a search for a double room in Miami for the night before the Super Bowl. You can get a room for $99, but that's 50 miles south... way out on Key Largo. For $466 you can get a room 25 miles north in Fort Lauderdale. But if you want to spend Saturday night in Miami proper, the cheapest option I found was for $499.
...and that's the easy part, financially speaking...
I checked a pair of ticketing websites, and the costs for tickets are simply staggering. This isn't helped by the fact that you have two teams playing that aren't Super Bowl fixtures. The Bears have a huge fanbase up in the nation's third biggest city and they haven't had a Super Bowl since 1985. There are a lot of folks with a lot of money in Chicago and they're helping drive ticket prices up. That's made worse by the fact that Indianapolis is in the game as well. While Indy can't boast the same upper-income-bracket populace Chicago can, because they've never been to the game before, Colts fans may see Super Bowl XLI as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see their team in the big game.
The cheapest ticket on one site (StubHub) - in the next-to-last row of an upper level section in the corner of the stadium - is $3,194.00! There are two available, so at least you and your 3-plus-thousand-dollar spending friend can sit together.
Then again, if you want to go all out... StubHub offers a 50-person private exclusive suite on the field level behind the Bears' sideline for $558,838.00. ...and I doubt that includes parking.
