Super Bowl: As Super As Ever

        To most of us, Super Bowl will be no less super this year. In fact, it may just be more superlative than ever.

              At its heart, Super Bowl offers fans and millions more one-time-a-year football viewers the greatest game of the year. No argument this time around. The match between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by Super Bowl’s seemingly permanent resident Tom Brady, and the Kansas City Chiefs, quarterbacked by the defending MVP Patrick Mahomes, already provides a compendium of dramatic stories for the ages. The NFL’s most dominant quarterback of the past two decades and owner of 6 Super Bowl rings against the youthful field general who could well be the next “greatest of all-time” is a tale of perseverance and of a gridiron of dreams. Thanks in large part to Brady, in his first year leading his new club to their first Super Bowl appearance since 2003, the Buccaneers are the first NFL team to play the Super Bowl in their own home stadium in the 55-year history of the game. The Kansas City Chiefs are looking for their second consecutive Vince Lombardi trophy. The on-time completion of the NFL season during the most devastating public health crisis in a century is an improbable success story for a league with a trophy case bursting with accomplishments.

              Sure, there will be almost no teeming, over-the-top parties, over-priced concerts, worthy charity events, and less overt commerciality in Tampa Bay this year. And, there will be fewer bars and restaurants across the country filled with fans watching the game. It is worth remembering, however, that the greatness of the game is the reason for all the rest of the usual hype around Super Bowl. The uber-spectacular halftime and the eagerly awaited advertising blitz of Hollywood-produced commercials would not exist without it. The pre-game of spectacle, patriotism and inspiration will be no less meaningful, memorable, and historic. The remarkable performance of the National Anthem by Whitney Houston 30 years ago is still remembered today. This year’s recitation of an original poem by Amanda Gorman may serve as that lasting legacy moment from 2021.

              Yes, there will be fewer fans in the stadium, less than a third of the usual spirited Super Bowl crowd. A lesser contingent of media are on hand to cover the spectacle of Super Bowl Week. But, almost one hundred million viewers will watch the game on CBS in the United States, presented through the lenses of more than 100 cameras, and it will no doubt be, again, the most watched broadcast of the year.

              Of course, there will be far less of an economic boon for the Tampa Bay area thanks, in part, to the greatly reduced number of fans in the stadium and the fewer in-bound sponsors attending the game. The shine of the home team being in the Super Bowl is more than a bit clouded by the fact that one set of the reduced number of fans already live in the area. Those celebrants can sleep in their own beds and eat in their own homes. They will not be vying for hotel rooms with the usual, egregiously stratospheric prices or jamming restaurants and bars for all three meals. They will not be dependent on similarly opportunistic prices on airfares and rental cars. Business and economic impact is one of the primary reasons for a host city to vie for the honor of hosting the Super Bowl. Tampa is a great place to experience the Super Bowl, in this fan’s opinion, and they and their business community deserve a redo at the league’s earliest opportunity.

              For those of you who would have been in Tampa for the game or usually enjoy the broadcast in a crowded Buffalo Wild Wings, welcome! Join the rest of us who watch the game with the same (or a better) beer in one hand and a plate of wings and nachos more economically procured in the other. Marvel more at the remarkable stories and feats of athletic prowess between the white lines, the spectacle of a concert that seems to spontaneously sprout and then miraculously vanish from the field itself and be entertained and inspired by the commercials that you’ll be able to see and hear better from the safety of your own homes. What “could have been” has been sacrificed for what “can be done” this year all the right reasons. But the raison d’etre for it all prevails. Don’t worry. The hype and frenzy of the pre-game week will be back another year, and the stadium will be filled again with sponsors, media, and fans.

              In the meantime, paraphrasing the words of CBS’s Sean McManus, we could all use the Super Bowl right now. As for me, there is nothing less super about it this year. I can’t wait.

Frank Supovitz is the CEO of Fast Traffic, an experience and event management, production, and consulting company. He is the former Senior VP of Events for the National Football League and oversaw the management of the Super Bowl from 2005 to 2014, including the last Super Bowl held in Tampa Bay in 2009. He is the author of “What to Do When Things Go Wrong,” a guide to crisis planning and management published by McGraw-Hill in 2019.