As an avid sports' fan, I never thought that I would believe there is too much hype about any one event in sports. I enjoy the entire NFL season (despite having to endure being a Washington Redskin's fan) and look forward to the playoffs every year culminating in the Super Bowl game itself.
Obviously I spend a lot of time in my car driving as a Realtor, so I tend to listen to an abundance of sports talk radio (probably should have learned to speak 5 languages by now instead of knowing stats about sports games 20 years ago), nonetheless this is what I tend to do on the road.
This is the first year I have ever felt that the Super Bowl is really becoming overhyped. I know that the CEO of the non-profit NFL has stated the goal of raising revenues from $9 Billion with a "B" to $25 Billion. However there comes a point when there can be too much of a good thing.
The NFL is the king of product promotion in sports. That is why they can get away with tinkering with the game almost on a yearly basis and still attracting more and more viewers. Nevermind that the rule chnages against the defense over the last decade or so has allowed offenses to become more prolific than anybody thought was possible. It is all about marketing the game.
This Sunday, companies will pay $4 million for an ad running during the Super Bowl. This is the same amount that was charged last year as well. In spite of the growing hype around the game (there was a record of over 5,300 media crudentials issued for the game), Fox was not able to charge any more for their advertising spots than CBS charged last year.
Perhaps the hype has run its course and the game has just reached the maximum possible exposure no matter how much it is hyped up. The ease and relative lower cost for tickets for the game that are remaining just days before the Super Bowl in NYC might just prove that. Time will tell.....