A mega Super Sunday and, oh, a football game
Super Bowl XLI is about much more than mere athletics.
from the February 1, 2007 edition
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"Hopefully there won't be much for us to do," says Julie Torres, who heads the Miami office of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
A task force of 30 federal agencies will be working in concert with Miami-Dade police and the NFL to screen the stadium and everyone entering the complex. They will deploy 60 K-9 teams, with dogs trained to detect 19,000 explosive compounds.
Security officials are also using state-of-the-art bomb-detection equipment, walk-through metal detectors, and even pat-down searches.
There is no indication that fear of terrorism is keeping anyone home. Instead, the event appears poised to break audience and other records.
Exactly how super is the Super Bowl?
"It is super in so many ways," says Kathleen Davis, executive director of the Sport Management Research Institute in Fort Lauderdale. Ms. Davis has been hired by local officials to track the economic impact of the event.
She says game-related spending gets a boost from two factors. The event attracts high-end consumers on deep-pocket corporate expense accounts. Some of the lavish spending is aimed at creating business relationships, or rewarding existing customers.
"They can afford that kind of investment," Davis says.
The other factor involves die-hard fans who view their team's appearance in the big game as potentially a once-in-a-lifetime event. They want to experience it themselves and to celebrate the hoped-for victory. And they are willing to splurge to do it.
That's where event packaging companies like RazorGator Experiences come in. They offer all-inclusive package deals for $5,000 to $10,000 to fans who want to avoid the hassle of finding game tickets, a hotel room, air tickets, and local transportation.
"It is one of the most highly anticipated events in the country, we elevate the Super Bowl experience for fans so that it becomes an event experience of a lifetime," says Julie Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the company.
Studies show that not everyone who tunes into the game is interested in football. "Pretty much half of everybody watching is watching just for the commercials," says David Shoffner, a spokesman at Pavone, an ad agency based in Harrisburg, Pa.
Mr. Shoffner cites a survey that found 58 percent of people standing around the water cooler the day after the Super Bowl talk about the commercials. Only 47 percent discuss the game, he says.
As for the turf, it has been growing for this game since July 2005. That means the grass has been in preparation for Super Bowl XLI twice as long as Bears standout Devin Hester has been in pro football.
The grass was transplanted from Georgia three weeks ago and groomed to a precise 5/8ths of an inch in height. Turf is to professional football what the red carpet is to the Academy Awards. A slip on a bad patch could mean the difference between a tackle and a touchdown in what, for many, could be the game of their lives.
Take our interactive Super Bowl quiz.
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