“I’ve been to a lot of Super Bowl cities, and this is a ghost town.” — Mark Schlereth
TAMPA, Fla. — The corpulent figure in a Steelers’ jersey, with No. 8 and “Maddox” on the back, was walking in the middle of the street in Centro Ybor, Tampa’s Cuban community, on Tuesday night. He was alone, unless you count his cocktail.
I thought: Tommy Maddox sure has let himself go since playing quarterback for the Broncos and the Steelers. Then I thought: Where is everyone? This is Super Bowl week.
Ybor City “reminds me of New Orleans’ Bourbon Street,” said Jerry Langford, the solitary Steelers admirer, “except without the people.”
What if they gave a Super Bowl, and nobody came?
The grandest, greatest, glitziest, gaudiest, garish-est sports week in America may look the same on TV, and the game will be sold out, and there’s excitement — and sea gulls — in the air. But the week feels different.
Super Bowl XXV was played in Tampa during the first Gulf War, and Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans was the first after 9/11, but the country craved diversions in those times, and both games provided relief — and fantastic finishes. The Buffalo Bills missed a field goal at the end to give the New York Giants a 20-19 victory in 25, and the New England Patriots got a field goal at the conclusion to beat St. Louis 20-17 in 36.
Perhaps a field goal in overtime will decide 43. This week necessitates resuscitation. And, indeed, shouldn’t the attention be on the game, not Diddy?
Playboy and Sports Illustrated have canceled their annual pre-Bowl parties. Say it ain’t so, Hef! The bashes are down, the no-shows up. We won’t always have Paris . . . Hilton.
Tampa aviation officials expect corporate jet landings to drop 50 percent. CEOs — poor babies — apparently don’t want to be spied cavorting and guzzling champagne at the Super Bowl when their companies are conking. FedEx and General Motors have pulled out of their participation. There are empty parking lots instead of party tents. A planned pro athletes-celebrity golf tournament was ditched a few weeks ago because of lack of sponsors and lack of players. The Maxim magazine party has reduced its guest list by more than 1,000.
Tampa officials believe the economic impact on the area will be reduced by at least 20 percent from past Super Bowls. Fewer fans and media are coming, and their stays have been shortened, their expenditures slashed.
“Worst experience at a Super Bowl I’ve ever had,” said the self-proclaimed “biggest scalper in the country” as he drowned his sorrows at a downtown hotel bar. “For example,” he slurred, “I got two on the 34-yard line, 17 rows up. In the past I could get $7,000 apiece for them kind of seats. I can’t get a nibble at $3,000. I’m dying here.”
Two things at work here: The economy and the Cardinals.
Not even the Super Bowl is impervious to the effects of the country’s deep recession.
And, honestly, the Arizona Cardinals don’t travel well. They wouldn’t have sold out their first home playoff game, and avoided a television blackout, if a pool supplies company hadn’t bought a large block of tickets late. People in Phoenix have moved there from somewhere else, or they don’t care for the Arizona Long-Suffering Cardinals, or they are struggling on a tight budget, or they don’t want to go from one warm spot to another on a packaged priced at $3,200 per.
Steelers fans went to the Super Bowl in Detroit three years ago.
But the NFL marches on. “We’re bullish on the Super Bowl and what it means to America,” said a league spokesman while humming “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
So, the NFL has introduced the $1,000 Super Bowl ticket.
But not the $50 hot dog.
Yet.
However, to show its concern for the economic plight, the league has reduced the tab on 1,000 tickets to $500.
Langford is trying to keep the cost of following his Steelers to the Super Bowl under $1,000. “I’m hoping to scam a cheap ticket. No Diamond Dolls (strip club) or big parties. I’ll drink beer, eat wings and hang out on the beach.”
Schlereth, the Broncos’ former Pro Bowl guard who currently is an NFL Network analyst and a soap opera star, has played in and attended several Super Bowls — he owns three championship rings — and says he “can’t believe it’s so quiet and not crazy. I’ve never seen it like this. You wonder if the excitement will pick up.”
I’ve been to a few Super Bowls — 30-plus, but I’ve stopped adding the Roman numerals — and downtown Tampa is not hopping like a Shriners convention or a dog show.
I found one 11-year-old boy wearing a Cardinals’ sweat shirt. He lives in St. Petersburg. “I like the (Tampa Bay) Bucs. My dad made me wear this so I might get some Arizona players’ autographs.”
They should have invited the Broncos to play, or held the Super Bowl in Denver, which showed it could throw a party.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
