The Wall Street Journal-20080201-WEEKEND JOURNAL- -What Game--
Return to: The_Wall_Street_Journal-20080201
WEEKEND JOURNAL; 'What Game?'
Full Text (1334 words)[They're going to parties. They're running up their expense accounts. But they're skipping the stadium. Hannah Karp on why some Super Bowl aficionados plan to leave Phoenix before kickoff.]
There's a new Super Bowl game plan among the rich, the cool and the connected: Fly in for the parties, the golf and the networking, and then catch a flight home -- long before kickoff.
"What game?" says sports agent Leigh Steinberg, who will host his annual Super Bowl party tomorrow afternoon at Phoenix's Botanical Gardens. Sunday, before the stadium gates open, he says he'll be on a plane back to Newport Beach.
Over the years, the Super Bowl has morphed from an epic test of football greatness into a mark-your-calendar social event, in which the game plays only a small part. Aside from the players, nearly everyone is there to drink, load up on swag, glad-hand clients, party- hop, ride around in limos and run up their expense accounts.
Audi, which is running a 60-second ad during the game Sunday, has been wooing potential customers on a nine-acre estate in Scottsdale since Wednesday with private cabanas, a par-3 golf course and outdoor fire pits.
Getting into the top parties is almost as difficult as getting into the game. Some invited guests have offered their tickets for tonight's Maxim magazine party for as much as $4,000 on ticket resale sites, while general admission tickets to Playboy's party tomorrow have been resold for $3,000.
After a week of late nights and VIP treatment, some are ready by Sunday morning for the comforts of home. The prospect of spending a few hours coping with the traffic, security checks, bathroom lines and stadium food of the game itself can be unappealing. Then there's the hassle of trying to get out of town after the game.
This year there's more incentive to leave early than ever. With two of the country's wealthiest fan bases flying most of the way across the country to get to Phoenix, local airports are inundated with landing requests from private jets. The Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee expects 800 to 1,000 corporate jets and 50 to 100 additional charters over the week, including visitors to the FBR golf tournament going on in Scottsdale, creating huge demand for prime departure times.
Making matters worse for fans hoping to take off right after the game: The Federal Aviation Administration is restricting air traffic within 10 miles of the stadium from noon to 9:30 p.m. Sunday for security reasons. Some private-jet companies have been trying to convince clients to leave early, stay an extra few nights, or take off from airports hours away.
When Robert Zarin called Blue Star Jets to book his flight to Phoenix, the Manhattan fabric company owner was warned that it would be tough to get out after the game and advised to stay over Monday night. "I said, 'Guess what? I don't want to be there Sunday.'" The Super Bowl veteran says he'll be flying out before kickoff. "It's a fun couple of days, but the game is a major scene. I'd rather be watching at home on a big screen with my family and friends."
The Super Bowl has come a long way since the first game in 1967, when tickets didn't sell out. That year, a party for the media was thrown in a small conference room, and fewer than 200 people showed up over the course of the night, recalls Gil Brandt, former director of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys.
It wasn't until Super Bowl X that Mr. Brandt began getting calls from friends asking for game tickets and hotel rooms. Two years later, for the 1978 matchup between the Cowboys and the Denver Broncos in New Orleans, he says he noticed waves of fans coming to town just to be part of the moment, regardless of whether they had tickets. By the 1980s, corporations started identifying the Super Bowl as a great place to entertain or launch a splashy marketing campaign.
Thirty-second television ads during the Super Bowl were priced at $2.7 million this year. But for most companies, a TV commercial is only one part of an overall Super Bowl marketing plan. A company can wind up spending double the cost of the ad by the end of Super Bowl week, taking into account all the client entertainment, hospitality and promotional events it puts on.
Chris Robichaud, president and chief operating officer of sports marketing firm BNC Marketing, says that for corporations and business people, the allure of Super Bowl week is really the "70,000 VIPs" attending the festivities, since exorbitant ticket prices have crowded out the riff-raff. "Because of that filter you have a tremendous marketing and networking opportunity," says Mr. Robichaud.
Anyone with unfettered access to the Super Bowl-week events might find the game anticlimactic. For its party tonight, Maxim magazine is covering the swimming pool at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess with glass paneling so that guests can "walk on water." Party favors will include a bottle of Patron tequila.
Tomorrow night, Hugh Hefner will host Playboy's Super Bowl party at an event space on the Gila River Indian Community reservation that looks like an 1880s frontier town with a saloon and steakhouse. Afterward, Mr. Hefner will fly back to Los Angeles, according to a Playboy spokesman; he's hosting a game-day party Sunday at the Playboy Mansion.
Wednesday night at the NFL host committee's black-tie gala at the Phoenician resort in Scottsdale, guests bid in a silent auction of sports memorabilia and mingled near a 500-pound football-shaped ice sculpture before sitting down for dinner and a performance by Jay Leno.
"We are in the total lap of luxury and it's imperative that we celebrate," said Frank Agnone, an internist from Scranton, Pa., who was invited to the party by a friend at UBS who had extra seats at his table. Although he says he could have gotten tickets to the game from one of his patients, Mr. Agnone decided instead to watch at a friend's house with his children.
It isn't that no one cares about Sunday's game. The matchup between the Giants and the Patriots has historic possibilities. The Patriots have the chance to become the second team in history, following the 1972 Miami Dolphins, to have a perfect championship season -- a scenario that also makes the Giants perfect underdogs.
But those who are serious about football don't necessarily feel that being at the game enhances the experience. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Steve Young, who now does commentary for ESPN, says he has to stick around to do postgame commentary this year, but would rather be home with his family. "It's not necessarily about the game anymore," he says of Super Bowl Week. "It's like a doctors' convention."
Rowland Hill, CEO of Snow Queen Vodka, is a big football fan, but he's passing up free tickets to this year's game after slogging through a rainy Super Bowl last year in Miami.
"It was not the most pleasant of experiences -- we got absolutely drenched," says the former pro-rugby player, who regrets that he didn't watch it with friends at a warm bar instead.
Mr. Hill is in town for the Arizona launch of his brand tonight at a party with model and actress Carmen Electra. He will be flying out Sunday before kickoff, even though he was offered tickets to the game by the party's organizers. "The main reason to come is not particularly the game," he says. "It's a wonderful opportunity to look after your customers."
Ms. Electra isn't staying, either -- she's flying out tomorrow and is considering watching the game Sunday at the Playboy Mansion. Ms. Electra has been to five Super Bowls and usually stays for a couple days because the "parties are always great," but says she's not enough of a football fan to stay for the main event.
"I just like to get out on the dance floor," says Ms. Electra.
