Despite Poor Economy, Super Bowl Won't Lose Luster

The sagging economy has put a hit on plans for this year's Super Bowl, not that visitors to Tampa for the game and hundreds of millions watching on TV will be able to tell the difference.

America's bacchanalian bash in honor of football will still roll for the TV cameras with all its over-the-top glitz. Yet there are signs — fewer and smaller parties, maybe not quite so many reporters and traveling fans — that the shine will be a little less bright this year.

The game will still be sold out. The town will be crawling with party-hopping celebrities. Hotels will be busy, fans wearing Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals garb will be ubiquitous on the streets, and hundreds of media members will descend to cover the event, which will still likely be the nation's most-watched TV broadcast this year.

The impact of the nation's economic woes on the event are more subtle.

The Super Bowl Host Committee had to lower its fundraising goal by $1 million. Corporations that are sponsoring the game are sending fewer bigwigs to town. A couple of the big Super Bowl parties and other events were bagged, others are downsizing, and some media companies — especially hard hit by the downturn and the changing habits of news consumers — are sending fewer scribes to cover the game.

"No one is immune from the economy, not the NFL, not the host committee for the Super Bowl," said Reid Sigmon, the host committee's executive director.

The committee lowered its local fundraising expectation from $8 million to $7 million after sponsorships lagged, but it will still meet its financial obligations to the NFL, Sigmon said. The committee started early and got a lot of the money raised before the economy took a hard turn in late summer, he said.

The auditing firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers predicted the economy would be a factor on game week, resulting in "fewer visitors and media, a shorter average length-of-stay per visitor, and less spending in the hospitality and related industries throughout the Tampa Bay area."

The projected $150 million in direct spending tied to the game will be about 20 percent off what it would have been if the economy were stronger, the company said in a report Wednesday.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league tried not to spare any expense for this year's event, adding that "we're bullish on the Super Bowl and what it means to America."

If the NFL's private sponsors' party seems smaller this year, it's simply because some sponsors are sending fewer people to the game, which the league sees as its pinnacle event, McCarthy said.

As an "acknowledgment of what our fans are going through," a block of 1,000 game tickets were offered for $500 each — $300 less than the face value of most game tickets, he said.

Tourism officials say it's still too early to tell how well Steelers and Cardinals fans will travel and whether the area's more than 50,000 hotel rooms will fill up. Tampa Bay & Company, the area's tourism bureau, is reaching out to media outlets in the Pittsburgh and Phoenix areas to drum up business.

"We're still expecting 100,000 fans in Tampa Bay," visitors bureau spokesman Travis Claytor said, citing the estimated number of visitors expected for a typical Super Bowl.

The economic woes led Sports Illustrated and Playboy to pull the plug on their traditional high-end Super Bowl parties this year. Sports Illustrated spokesman Scott Novak said "it wasn't the right thing to do," given the state of the economy.

However, there will be no shortage of glitzy fetes and red carpet scenes around town in the days leading up the game. Among the hosts and other big names: Kevin Costner, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jenny McCarthy, Carmen Electra, Pamela Anderson and T-Pain.

The Maxim magazine party is still on; it's just being downsized a bit. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend what has become one of Super Bowl week's most popular affairs.

"We're all cognizant of the difficult economic environment in which we operate, and our party reflects that," said Glenn Rosenbloom, co-CEO of Alpha Media Group Inc., which publishes the men's magazine. "So we're going to have it in a smaller venue and it will be more exclusive."

Viewers at home will get to see plenty of quirky Super Bowl commercials, as usual. Although Super Bowl regulars such as General Motors Corp. and FedEx Corp. opted out of advertising on the broadcast, NBC said it had sold 90 percent of Super Bowl ads as of mid-January.

Most ads have sold for about $3 million per 30-second spot — an all-time high price for the Super Bowl, which will be seen by about 100 million U.S. viewers.

AIG Will Not Renew Man United Shirt Sponsorship

AIG has confirmed it will not be renewing its shirt sponsorship of Manchester United when the deal expires in 2010.

American International Group Inc. is in the process of restructuring its business and shedding assets to raise funds after receiving a $150 billion bailout last year from the U.S. government.

The company has already ended its decade-long sponsorship of the U.S. Davis Cup team.

The Manchester United deal is worth a reported 19 million pounds ($27 million) annually.

"The shirt sponsorship runs to May 2010," AIG said in a statement given to The Associated Press on Thursday. "There are no plans to renew the deal."

United has already started looking for a new sponsor and has sounded out Sahara, a leading Indian business conglomerate as well as Saudi Telecom.

"We are in dialogue with a select number of companies worldwide," United spokesman Phil Townsend said earlier this week.

Even with the current economic climate, United should have no problem securing a deal better than the AIG agreement. Manchester United is the most popular soccer team in the world and won the Premier League, Champions League and the FIFA World Club Championship last season.

Dolphins Sale Finalized

Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga was serious about wanting to sell his majority share of the team to co-owner Stephen Ross before Barack Obama became president.

Granted the sale didn’t take place during 2008, which means if capital gains taxes do increase this year, Huizenga is likely to be socked with a higher bill. But from what I’m being told, the deal to sell the additional 45 percent of the Dolphins and Dolphin Stadium was signed before Obama took the oath of office this afternoon.

Ross now owns 95 percent of the team and the stadium and 50 percent of the surrounding land. Huizenga, who maintains his attachment to the team calling the sale “bittersweet,” is hanging onto 5 percent of the team and stadium and half the land. Total value of the deal: $1.1 billion.

But with Tuesday’s deal, Huizenga gave up his last majority ownership in a South Florida sports franchise. In the 1990s, Huizenga owned three teams: the Dolphins, Marlins and Panthers. Huizenga brought both baseball and hockey to the region.

Tuesday began a new era. That wasn’t lost in Ross, a New York real estate developer and part-time Palm Beach resident.

“The United States is entering into a new climate, a new opportunity,” Ross said when asked about the sale being completed the same day Obama took office. “And I saw myself, being able to enter into a new opportunity for me that was very exciting, and I’ve always dreamt of.”

Ross wouldn't discuss the financial structure of the deal, but sources say Huizenga is holding a note on the transaction and allowing Ross to owe him a portion of the balance. He says he has been pursuing investors to buy a stake in the team.

"I always wanted to have a few people join me. And in these times, no one has joined me at this point in time," Ross said adding he is still talking with a few potential investors.

Ross didn’t reveal much about how he intends to run the Dolphins, other than he hopes to build on Huizenga’s legacy. He vowed not to increase ticket prices next season, saying now, in a struggling economy, was not the time to raise prices.

He said he plans to alter the game-day experience, but he didn't offer any details. He’ll examine the stadium and business side of the operation and the possibility for additional renovations or development, he said.

“We’re really looking into all of that and seeing the pricing of all of that and how we might put that together, but I’m examining every aspect of the business,” Ross said.

He said he never intended to offer a job to friend and former Kansas City Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson, who Ross invited to join him at the Dolphins-Baltimore Ravens playoff game.

He is still talking about former USTA CEO Arlen Kantarian possibly joining the team as a business side executive, but “there is no deal.”

And he offered some welcome news to those of us still in the newspaper business:

“When you love a sport which I do, I love all sports and am constantly reading the sports pages,” he said. “Even today, when I read the paper and I read a couple of them, the first section I go to is the sports section. You can’t get that out of your system no matter what you’re doing. I was brought up always wanting to be involved with sports, it’s always a dream. Since I wasn’t going to make it as a player, it was a dream to become an owner.”

City of San Diego Sues Chargers For Back Rent

Is it too late to funnel some of that bailout money to the Chargers?

In a move that surprised everyone, including the Chargers, the City of San Diego sued the Chargers on Wednesday, for breach of contract.

The San Diego Union Tribune reports that the city of San Diego has filed a breach-of-contract suit against the Chargers, claiming the team owes the city more than $170,000 for use of Qualcomm Stadium in 2004, including more than $44,000 in accrued interest.

The suit came as a surprise to the Chargers, who noted that the team’s lease with the city calls for any controversy between the two parties to be decided in arbitration – and not in a lawsuit.

The idea behind mandatory arbitration was to save legal expenses and time. Fabiani said he expected the suit to be dismissed because of this lease stipulation.

The city’s suit says the Chargers were obligated to pay $250,000 per game in rent for the city-owned stadium, subject to certain rent credits allowed by the city in the lease. In 2005, the city audited payments by the team for 2004 and found the team underpaid the city by $125,795 as a result of the Chargers claiming skybox rent credits that were previously disallowed by the city for the 1996 through 2000 seasons.

Papa John's Has Special Super Bowl Offer

Are you looking to create a unique football-themed promotion? Are you looking for an interesting way to tie in a media personality to your promotional offer?

Looking to capitalize on all of the frenzy surrounding the Super Bowl, Papa Johns has created a unique performance-driven promotion that has the potential to reward fans in a LARGE way.

If the opening kickoff of the Super Bowl (Papa Johns uses the terminology "The Big Game") is returned for a touchdown, every consumer who registers* on the Countdown To Kickoff webpage before 6pm on Super Bowl Sunday will become eligible to receive a large, one-topping pizza for just 25 cents. The 25 cent offer coincides with this year being Papa John's 25th anniversary.

Is the promotional offer possible? Yes, very possible - eight (8) kickoffs have been returned for a touchdown in Super Bowl history (seven (7) of which have occured since 1984). During the 2008-09 season, thirteen (13) kickoffs were returned for touchdowns (Source: Countdown to Kickoff webpage)

Papa Johns has called on ESPN football personality Desmond Howard, who holds the record for the longest touchdown return in Super Bowl history, to help promote the unique discount offer for fans. The Countdown to Kickoff webpage features a few great viral clips that show Desmond Howard expressing his love for football and Papa Johns pizza while working at a Papa Johns retail location. Papa Johns is also supporting the promotion with a Facebook application/group which already boasts 200,671 fans.

Tribune Chooses Ricketts To Buy Cubs

The billionaire Ricketts family has been selected by Tribune Co. as the winning bidder for the hard-luck Chicago Cubs, according to several reports.

The bid is worth about $900 million, according to the Web site of the Chicago Tribune, which also is owned by Tribune Co. The sale would include Wrigley Field and a 25 percent interest in a regional sports network, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The selection of Tom Ricketts, a member of the founding family of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., and chief executive of InCapital LLC, was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times' Web site.

Both reports cited an unidentified source.

Tribune Co. purchased the Cubs from Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. for $20.5 million in June 1981. It put the team on the market on opening day 2007, when real estate mogul Sam Zell agreed to buy Tribune Co.

Cubs chairman Crane Kenney said last week that the team hopes to have a new owner in place by opening day, April 6, but many steps must happen before a sale can be completed.

Ricketts must reach an agreement with Tribune Co., which filed for bankruptcy protection last month. While the Cubs and Wrigley Field were not included in the bankruptcy filing, a sale likely will have to be approved by the creditors' committee.

In addition, a sale must be approved by baseball owners.

Major League Baseball had not been informed by Tribune Co. of the winning bidder as of Thursday evening, a baseball official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions between the team and MLB are not made public.

Other finalists in the bidding included Hersch Klaff, who owns a Chicago commercial real estate firm, and a partnership between two New Yorkers involved in private equity, Marc Utay of Clarion Capital and Leo Hindery Jr. of InterMedia Partners.

Tom Ricketts grew up watching the Cubs on WGN, once lived in an apartment above a bar across the street from Wrigley Field, and met his wife in the bleachers at a Cubs game. His father, J. Joe Ricketts, founded Ameritrade and became a leading online stockbroker, but Tom never worked for that company.

He was a market maker at the Chicago Board Options Exchange and finance executive before starting investment bank Incapital LLC. He has been serving as the family's point man in the bid to buy the Cubs.

If the deal is approved, the Ricketts would acquire a team that hasn't won the World Series since 1908 and hasn't even made it to the World Series since 1945. While the Cubs won the NL Central in each of the last two seasons, they were swept in the first round of the playoffs both times.

Tribune Co. considered selling the team and the famous ballpark separately but rejected a plan from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to purchase the ivy-walled stadium. Kenney said recently that the two would be sold together.

Stewart Adds Burger King

Tony Stewart is adding another sponsor to his roster for next season.

Burger King has signed a two-race Sprint Cup Series deal to serve as primary sponsor of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. The deal, which is valued at $2.8 million, also includes sponsorship of Stewart's Eldora Speedway dirt track in New Weston, Ohio.

The fast food chain will serve as primary sponsor for the second races at Daytona International Speedway (July 4) and Dover International Speedway (Sept. 27).

"I've been using my team card a lot," Stewart joked at the announcement. "So I'm not starving by any means."

Stewart's primary sponsorship of his No. 14 Sprint Cup entry will be split by Office Depot and Old Spice.