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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Jeff Goulding
They’ve created an entertainment spectacle that transcends sports, throwing soccer stars, loud music, and fans throwing $20 a head into an adrenaline-pumping mixer, creating a Super Bowl opening night event that sets the big-game vibe at the Phoenix Sonnen Arena set in motion Monday.
The National Football League has this Super Bowl stuff on sale.
As the crowd at the Footprint Center appears to be, more than 10,000 fans spent $20 apiece on Sunday to watch players from the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs play for the NFL championship at State Farm Stadium in Metro Phoenix.
“It’s been a week and a spectacle,” said Connor Embree, the Chiefs wide receiver coach. “And people are talking about making the Monday after the Super Bowl a national holiday. It brings people from all walks of life together. You invite your neighbors over.”
The NFL has monetized its product as well as any other league in the United States, generating more than $17 billion in annual revenues thanks to multi-billion dollar media rights deals and top-rated TV programming.
And more money tonight. Ten thousand fans times $20 each meant a whopping $200,000 in revenue.
Chiefs linebacker Jack Cochrane, a South Dakota attorney, said the Super Bowl has become “a uniquely cultural thing in the United States. This is culturally anchored in our country. It is the pinnacle of sport in this country and this country is passionate about sport.”
The teams’ quarterbacks — the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts and the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes — entertained questions from NFL Network/ex-player Michael Irvin.
Mahomes put his job into perspective with a simple sentence: “I come to work and give everything I have.”
Chiefs strength and conditioning coach Barry Rubin said he remembers the days when baseball and football were equally popular in the United States.
No longer.
“When the Super Bowl started, football and baseball were even. But now football is America’s sport,” said Rubin, who is from Monroe, Louisiana.
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