Under the Hat: Just a Game - WICU12/WSEE Erie, PA News, Sports, Weather and Events

Under the Hat: Just a Game

I have friends in the business who are now working in Indianapolis, a great Midwestern city turned on its head this year by the impending Super Bowl.

People in the news business there have been going non-stop for weeks, filing stories on everything from security costs and economic impacts to sprucing up the town for the inevitable scrutiny of a nation.

 I could almost hear the one guy panting as he texted me about why he didn't have time to talk.

It was just a brief note but it ended with "good thing it's just a game!"

Yea, it's just a game, a game that will be viewed by more than 100 million people.

It's a game that will bring in more than 90 million dollars to Vegas sports books alone and will generate 3.5 million dollars for every 30 seconds of advertising.

If you don't have a calculator handy that works out to more than 116,000 dollars per second!

And you wonder why potato chips are four bucks a bag?

Indianapolis is spending some 25 million dollars on its Super Bowl village and more than four million more on an added public safety presence this week.

Of course none of that would even be possible if the city and state didn't join together to spend 720 million dollars on a new stadium that would meet the needs of what is far and away the single biggest American sporting event of the year.

But of all the mind-boggling numbers generated by the Super Bowl the folks at Bloomberg may have scored the biggest.

They estimate that Americans will pass 11 billion dollars, billion with a "b" buying food, drinks and merchandise for Super Bowl parties this year.

Even at today's prices, that's a load of chicken wings.

So have fun this weekend; hopefully you can avoid that other great American tradition; calling off sick the Monday after.

But whatever you do remember this:

It's just a game.