Irony: Glendale lost money on Super Bowl

May 14th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

I’m no economist — although I play one on the Internet! — but I would think hosting a large event like say, the Super Bowl, might net your metropolis some cash — seeing as a lot of tourists will flock into town and buy stuff. This is what I can only assume Glendale thought when it hosted the Super Bowl this year. (And yes, cities can have thoughts.)

However, not true. Turns out they lost some mad scrill. About $2.2 mill, in fact. From the Arizona Republic:

Bottom line: The city spent $2.2 million more than its estimated take in connection with the game.[ … ]

A few things worked against Glendale, including the city’s relatively small number of hotels, and the practice of host cities waiving sales-tax collections on game tickets and some merchandise to the NFL.

The city could boast just 400 hotel rooms when University of Phoenix Stadium opened in 2006. That quadrupled to 1,266 hotel rooms by the Super Bowl. Dozens of restaurants and stores opened near the stadium in the weeks leading up to the game.

Still, the study found that just 5 percent of an estimated 123,500 out-of-town visitors stayed in Glendale and not yet enough retail and entertainment options existed to satisfy demand.

Pollack, in a memo accompanying the study, said future Super Bowls could bring greater gain to the city.

“As the number of hotel rooms and retail space surrounding the stadium increases over the years, the Glendale benefit could increase significantly,” he said.

This is a good lesson for all you kids out there: if at first you don’t profit on the Super Bowl, build more stuff around the stadium, ensure there’s enough hotels close by to go around and try, try again.

{Via SbB.}

This would have been so much better

February 7th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Comrade in FanHouse Larry Brown has the alternate Reebok “Perfectville” commercial today, and I’ve got to say: This was way more enjoyable than the actual commercial. Not as enjoyable as if it had ended with Mercury Morris on his knees, wailing in a melded pool of tears and urine, cursing the gods for his lost immortality, swearing off narcissism forever, just before a lightning bolt sets that suburban husk of a home on fire as an angry, vengeful God UNLEASHES DESTRUCTION AND FURY FOR ALL THE WORLD TO –

Whoa. Sorry about that. Just … this commercial will do fine, I suppose.

Don’t be that guy

January 31st, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

If you’re going to be the drunk, sloppy, using-the-back-of-your-hand-to-simulate-drumming-on-the-stage guy, please, please, don’t do it at a Super Bowl media event. Not only will you end up on the Internet, perfectly nice people will feel compelled to make fun of you. And since you’re (presumably) sober now, you can actually tell people are making fun of you — unlike when you were dancing and totally oblivious to the snickers.

And come on, dude. It’s the Gin Blossoms. Even drunk people don’t like the Gin Blossoms.

{HT: The Sporting Blog, which, thanks mostly to Chris Mottram, is tearing up on-site coverage. Seriously: tearing it up. There’s chafing.}

The Giants are going to win because a camel said so

January 29th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

If I were a Giants fan I’d most likely be grasping for any sign from above, any reason to believe my team is going to upset and dethrone the Patriots in the Super Bowl.  This isn’t to say the Giants have no shot: they certainly do. But this is to say when you’re running up against perhaps the greatest NFL team of all-time, any help you can get goes a long way.

That’s what Giants fans have to be uber-pumped that Princess the camel has them taking out New England. Wait, what?

Her picks are nothing to spit at: Princess, who once belonged to heiress Doris Duke, went 11-6 during the regular season and is 8-out-of-10 in the playoffs this year. Her prowess is equal to that of some of the most famous forecasters.

“I can’t explain it, but her predictions, more often than not, are right on the money,” said John Bergmann, general manager of Popcorn Park Zoo, the southern New Jersey facility for elderly, abused or unwanted animals where Princess has lived since 2004. “I’m hoping she’s right this time because I’m a Giants fan.”

Princess’ prognostication skills flow from her love of graham crackers. Bergmann will choose a game at random during the regular season, place a cracker in each hand, and use a permanent marker to scrawl the name of a competing team on each hand.

Whichever hand Princess nibbles from is her “pick” for that week.

Her regular season mark of 11-6 comes out to a .647 winning percentage. (Since she never quite got the hang of points spreads, Princess picks the games straight-up, just choosing the winner.)

This may be a bit ridiculous … you know, a camel named Princess picking the winner of NFL games at a high rate of success. But, I can’t think of a better example to illustrate how randomness and blind luck really plays an enormous part in sports picks. Just because a team should win doesn’t mean they will. Just because a team should lose doesn’t mean they will. As much as you might try to account for defensive schemes and audibles and punt coverage, stuff can change real quick once the ball is in play.

This is also the reason why, on any given night, some 70-year-old lady in Vegas can pull the handle on a slot machine and become a millionaire on her first trip to the city, while the guy playing the same machine for 30 years is down money.

It all makes no sense.

Tom Petty, begin plotting your subtle phallic symbol now

December 3rd, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

Last year, I was a huge fan of Prince’s incredible Super Bowl halftime show. Everything went well: Prince played Purple Rain, nailed a Foo Fighters cover, switched guitars a bunch of times, and unleashed a pretty brilliant phallic gesture that no one seemed to catch on to until it was too late to generate much moral outrage. Granted, it was considerably more subtle than Boobiegate, but what isn’t? This all means Tom Petty has some pretty big shoes to fill. He’s got to be just milquetoast enough to please light beer-swilling America, and he’s got to be just edgy enough to satisfy the weekend anarchists among us. In other words, he’s got to somehow compete with Prince. No easy task.

So, what’s the plan, TP? Quick production meeting time; huddle up. Let’s start with a facemelting rendition of Running Down a Dream. Then switch – without a discernible stop, of course – into a cover of a more recent band’s work, say, the Killers’ “All These Things I’ve Done”, before finishing with “Last Dance With Mary Jane” as a giant rock symbol — with a shaded bong in the outline of the letters PETTY — descends from the stage’s upper rafters. Nailed it!

Just … no Free Falling. OK?

I’m glad we had this talk.

Sorry, Indianapolis

May 22nd, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

As David J. Warner attested to Sunday over at the Fanhouse, Indianapolis really isn’t that bad of a city. I mean, they have the Circle Centre which is like a mall but way, way cooler. Also, it sports like, a few big buildings and the Indianapolis Indians stadium — which, from the outside — looks to be a great place to watch a ballgame.

But the city, which as of late reports was supposedly in the lead to snatch and play host to the 2011 Super Bowl, got beat out earlier this afternoon. Your winner, the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington North Texas. The new, bigger and more expensive stadium beat out the well, new stadium in Indianapolis.

But fear not, citizens of Indy: you hosted the Final Four in 2006. Also, the Fever season is getting into full swing at the moment.

Can Arlington, Tx., make any of these claims? I think not.

Focus on the positives: Prince ruled

February 5th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

I know I’m not the oldest cat in the game, but I am racking my memory for a Super Bowl halftime show I enjoyed more, and I’m coming up with nothing. Maybe Michael Jackson? Doesn’t count; I was like 7 or something.

Even the recent rock shows didn’t live up. The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney are obviously better acts, but their performances were sort of uninspired. Prince’s, on the other hand, was totally maximized to its fullest potential, complete with light and explosions, a cover song medley, even artificial lightning. Everything - down to his weird little headscarf - was on point.

Kelefa Sanneh of the New York Times agrees, it seems:

A brief concert in the middle of the Super Bowl, on a temporary stage, designed to thrill a captive audience with nothing in common except a love of sport or spectacle, or both. How could that ever be a good idea? Then, just when it seemed time to give up on that quaint ritual known as the halftime show, along comes Prince.

His performance last night at Super Bowl XLI will surely go down as one of the most thrilling halftime shows ever; certainly the most unpredictable, and perhaps the best. “Dearly beloved,” he whispered, intoning the famous first words of “Let’s Go Crazy.”

Yep, it was pretty much awesome. And we probably should have seen it coming, too, considering he gave the single coolest Super Bowl press conference ever:

You’re ignorant, you’re just ignorant

February 2nd, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

Kidding. Not you - sportswriters! (Via MJD at the FanHaus.)

All told, Rex sort of has a point here. The average sportswriter, as far as I know, doesn’t study much game film or prepare at the same level across a season of games the way an NFL quarterback has to, so there’s no doubt Rex sees things on film that looked like negatives to viewers but are, in actuality, positives, based on the specific play situation.

That said … Rex, it doesn’t take a lot of inquiry to realize you’ve been really good at some points this year and really bad at other points. That’s pretty much obvious to anyone with a passing interest in the NFL and/or the ability to understand the most remedial of statistics. Come off it, chap.

I think MJD’s point is the best here: Rex is just sick of it. And if some dude was analyzing every little blog post I made, or every single game wrap I put together, and picking apart the things that were constantly wrong with my writing - basically, if I was being told I was the worst sports blogger ever to, I don’t know, write something about the Super Bowl - well, I’d probably flip out just a little bit too.

As I sit idly by my laptop…

February 1st, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

With nothing much of substance matriculating throughout the blogosphere today, (except for this, of course) let me take this opportunity to comment on the above picture of Charles Tillman.

That face speaks for the nation, people. Bored. Waiting. For. This. Damn. Game. To. Start. Already. Ahhhhhhh!

Sidenote: The brilliant Dan Shanoff picked a Colts-Bears Super Bowl before the season started. Pretty baller pick, if you ask me. Although, he has the Colts winning. For shame, Dan. For shame.

(Update: the 6 p.m. SportsCenter had video of Tillman acting all apathetic to reporters. AWESOME.)

Your 2007 edition of the Super Bowl Shuffle

January 30th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

Huge hat tip to the fine Chicago fellas over at Fleece the Pig, Flog the Pony for unearthing these kids busting out a Justin Timberlake parody entitled “Shuffle Back” on YouTube.

I think a dying Ghandi could mutter words over that beat and it would still be so damn infectious.

And speaking of “Sexy Back,” here’s the song used to utter perfection. (New “The Office” episode Thursday night. Watch it.)