Dominate the Super Bowl

Chapter 459: 458 Everyone bustling around Chapter 459: 458 Everyone bustling around Actually, the treatment Li Wei received when he returned to New York was a clear indicator.

Even though he had never played a single game for any New York team, people still cheered and celebrated for him because he had eliminated Brady and the New England Patriots—

It turned out, it wasn’t just New York.

The entire League was waiting, waiting for a new face, waiting for a new idol, waiting for a superhero, like Captain America, to emerge and break the dominance of the New England Patriots and completely overturn and redefine the League’s structure.

This is the most exciting and wonderful thing about the NFL.

People were ready.

In fact, it was not just about being ready, more precisely, people were eagerly anticipating, keenly hoping, and desperately waiting.

The day had finally come.

So.

This was not a disaster, on the contrary, it was a celebration, the beginning of a new era, the turning point after a long drought meeting a timely rain.

Brady: “Are you polite?”

But at this moment, no one cared about Brady; no one paid attention to Belichick and the New England Patriots.

They could finally take off their masks, laugh heartily, and celebrate without restraint.

As soon as the Pro Bowl weekend was over, with a full week still remaining before the official opening of the Super Bowl, journalists and fans from all over North America and the world had already headed to the party.

They swarmed towards this year’s Super Bowl venue, Minneapolis, in droves.

Otherwise, if their actions were even slightly delayed, they might not even find a room in a motor inn and end out on the streets, but missing the chance to join other football fans in the grand celebration would be the truly regrettable matter.

This year, the NFL brought the Super Bowl to Minneapolis, Minnesota—

This was an experiment.

Traditionally, the NFL prefers to host the Super Bowl in cities close to the equator in the south, such as New Orleans, Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles, etc.

The core reason is, benefits.

Every year, the Super Bowl is held at the end of January or the beginning of February in the Northern Hemisphere, which is winter, bitterly cold winter.

Low temperatures often make football games challenging, and if there is heavy rain or snow, the seamless passing offense of football has no room to perform, making the game even less appealing.

This is not good for the ratings.

After all, we’re not discussing just any ordinary game, but the Super Bowl—

The fifty-second Super Bowl, where advertising costs have soared to five million US dollars for every thirty seconds, setting a new global record for commercial advertising expenses.

This means that any slight fluctuation in the ratings directly translates into millions or even tens of millions of dollars in impact.

No one wants to bear such a huge loss.

Therefore.

To ensure the ratings, the NFL still favors hosting the Super Bowl in cities near the equator.

However, this results in the cities on the northern part of the North American continent being completely ignored, almost as if they have been deprived of the potential power to host the Super Bowl.@@novelbin@@

Cities like Green Bay, Foxborough, Buffalo, and other small market cities are completely off the list, and naturally, these cities have grievances.

Like the World Cup and the Olympics, cities that host the Super Bowl also welcome a large influx of visitors.

From the perspective of traditional sports tourism, short-term events tend to undermine tourists’ willingness for long trips, but the Super Bowl is a unique exception.

The event lasts only one day, to be precise, just four hours for a game, but the attraction of the Super Bowl ranks at the top globally.

Take last year as an example.

The 51st Super Bowl was held in Houston, and within just five days, it spurred a tourist influx of 1.5 million visitors and brought in seven hundred million US dollars of revenue for Houston.

The numbers are the most intuitive.

Not only the host city, but also large enterprises in industries such as hotels, dining, transportation, and retail cannot refuse such an event, and the state government where the city is located often supports it vigorously, in anticipation that the Super Bowl could revitalize the economy.

Just like Hua Xia’s Lunar New Year Gala, regardless of the quality of the program, the attention remains high because watching and critiquing the Gala has become a ritual; the content of the Gala itself has faded into the background and is no longer as important, thus forming a new cultural ritual for the Lunar New Year.

The Super Bowl is the same.

Again, taking last year as an example, the New England Patriots were clearly not America’s darling, and the Atlanta Falcons were also not the leading team among fans, but this did not affect the Super Bowl’s ratings and discussion heat reaching new highs at all.

After the game, ESPN conducted a sampling survey which showed that 39% of viewers were keen on watching this year’s Super Bowl commercials and movie trailers; only 28% actually thought the game was exciting.

In addition, more than 40% of respondents stated they did not care at all about the outcome of the championship.

In other words, the Super Bowl is also becoming a cultural ritual, and the surrounding economic impact centered on it is far more extensive than one could imagine.

One can guess how many protests were raised by northern cities when the league time and again locked in southern cities as the Super Bowl venues.

So,

the league has also been seeking a balance.

Since everything under the sun is motivated by profit, people cheer for the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs meeting at the Super Bowl.

All the hustle and bustle is also for profit, so this year’s Super Bowl has come to the northern city of Minneapolis.

This is the true essence at the heart of the professional league.

Wait, what about the weather?

No worries, U.S.

Bank Stadium, just put into use in 2016, is an indoor stadium!

Although the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs did not get to play in the spring-like warmth of the Caribbean coast, they will still clash in a stable and comfortable environment, completely eliminating postseason weather factors, yet it’s unknown which team it favors more.

This year marks the first time the U.S.

Bank Stadium is hosting the Super Bowl, but who knows, may Minneapolis become a sacred place hosting the Super Bowl multiple times in the future, like Phoenix, New Orleans, and Miami?

For Minneapolis, this is a good thing, a joyous thing, a cause for celebration, the city is already bustling a week before the unveiling of the Super Bowl; but for the Minnesota Vikings, something…

seems a bit off.

The reason lies in—

The home-field curse.

During the half-century history of the Super Bowl, the team from the host location has never made it to the Super Bowl; for the past fifty-one years, no team has managed to break this peculiar curse, an enigma that remains unsolved.

This year was no exception.

In the National Conference final, this season’s dark horse, the Minnesota Vikings, in the face of favorable predictions, suffered a crushing defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles and were eliminated, extending the Super Bowl home-field curse and missing the prime opportunity to win the Super Bowl Champions title at their home stadium amidst the cheers of Minneapolis fans.

Thus,

According to the rules that take the hosting time of the Super Bowl as the basis, even-numbered years are home for the American League, odd-numbered years are home for the National Conference, the team that had the home-field advantage this year at the Super Bowl was—

The Kansas City Chiefs.