Game of Games
Where and how to enjoy football's Super Bowl
by Dave Bontempo
Nothing defines marketing evolution like the Super Bowl.
When it first dawned, the 1967 game unfolded before 38,000 empty seats in the cavernous Los Angeles Coliseum. Tickets ranged from $8 to $12 for an event then called the World Championship Game, in which the Packers slammed the Chiefs.
How times have changed. When the 40th Super Bowl dawns February 5, a national holiday erupts in homes, casinos, bars and restaurants. Call it Dead President's Weekend, with an avalanche of money and the health of several industries surrounding one game.
It's hard to believe one could have ever bought a Super Bowl seat moments before kickoff. Tickets now exceed $600 and cost even more via scalpers. Arenas routinely sell out. A 30-second commercial now runs more than $2 million. Broadcast fees push the value of the Super Bowl into the billions, because the game will be carried to more than 100 countries in over 30 languages. The 10 most watched programs in history are Super Bowls.
Consumers celebrate financial mayhem. In Nevada, gamblers wager nearly $100 million. Throughout the country, a bevy of box pools and game bets runs Super Bowl Mania into the billions.
Cottage industries have emerged around the game, starting with the Lite Beer bowls. Add in the focus of new commercials, which launch a competition of their own. Authoring the top commercial of Super Sunday makes the year for an advertising executive.
Halftime also projects an aura. It once featured a pay-per-view game between two scantily clad female lineups, dubbed the Lingerie Bowl. An intermission performance becomes an unprecedented honor, as even Sir Paul McCartney considers it one of his biggest thrills. This year the legendary Rolling Stones do the honors.
The monolithic event now requires lead time. There are two weeks between the conference championships and the Super Bowl, allowing a marketing hype period. Ironically, the players enter off a bye week and play less than "super."
Though the game is often anti-climactic, the stars become legends. Vince Lombardi won the first two championship games and cemented his Hall-of-Fame legacy. Joe Namath's guarantee of a Jets victory in Super Bowl III overshadowed his career. In the '70s, the Steelers won four Super Bowls to become a dynasty. The San Francisco 49ers gained similar acclaim in the 1980s.
The closest subsequent run of dominance has been the Patriots winning three times in four years. The game became a double thrill for Eagles fans last year, but always lives on its own. It is a celebration wherever one watches.
Here, then, is a list of local establishments primed for kickoff.
[A Brew and a View]
Damon's Grill unfurls its traditional menu of food, frolic and frenzy. About 250 patrons fill the sports bar restaurant, complete with four big-screen televisions and 16 regular-size monitors.
There's not a bad seat in the cozy-sized house. Famous ribs aside, the meal lineup includes 35-cent wings and $3 specials for 22-ounce aluminum bottles of Budweiser and Bud Lite.
Football fans jammed Damon's throughout the season to watch every league game on the NFL Sunday Ticket. The postseason absence of the Eagles makes this just a different celebration.
"It was crazier than ever last year with the Eagles in it," Damon's manager Dave Rucci says. "It was loud, raucous and more festive than ever. Now we will have people who love the game itself. There will be more attention given to the commercials again. This will be one gigantic living room."
Rucci indicates Damon's will have t-shirt, hat, keychain and other prize giveaways. The place will begin filling up around 4 p.m.
Swingers becomes an open-air oasis in the middle of the Sands. It features the Flare Bartenders, servers who perform acrobatics, pour several drinks at once and take video DJ requests. Prizes, giveaways, contests, drink specials and stadium-style food like hot dogs and soft pretzels create a lively atmosphere. Swingers fashions 14 plasma screens and one huge television.
Atlantic City showcases the new 40/40 club, which opened in October and has its share of celebrities. About 2,000 people can fit into the club, which features leather couches, a plasma screen at every station, stadium seating and the feel of a mini-arena.
It won't be an audible for Charlie's in Somers Point to "Wing It." Philadelphia magazine dubbed it "Best of the Shore" for wings in 2005. The establishment, which routinely offers wings as a prime staple, will produce its usual Super Bowl collection.
Charlie's champions informality. There are four screens of substantial, but not overpowering size. They complement the room without dominating it. Charlie's offers non-traditional items like pool and a shuffleboard table. A couple hundred people can fit and the building figures to be filled on Super Sunday.
Pick the environment that bests suits your comfort. Wherever you watch the game, savor the action and start the countdown toward baseball season.
Dave Bontempo is an award-winning sports writer and broadcaster who calls boxing matches all over the world. He has covered the Philadelphia Flyers in the playoffs, as well as numerous PGA, LPGA and Seniors Golf Tour events, and co-hosted the Casino Connection television program with Publisher Roger Gros.
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