Phoenix, Arizona. The Super Bowl.
It’s the ultimate game for the ultimate football fan.
But it’s not for everyone.
While the Grey Cup is a celebration that allows blue-collar fans from Victoria to Victoriaville to enjoy the festivities, the Super Bowl is not.
Of course, the NFL will promote it as otherwise. Although if you really want to enjoy the parties and events leading up to the game, bring your credit card – and you’ll probably need the black one. This is basically a corporate schmoozefest.
Let’s start off with accommodations.
Hotel chains will jack up their rates with the game in town. I recall talking to some folks in New Orleans one year who were paying $800 a night…for a room at the Holiday Inn. Here in Phoenix if you want to stay at the posh Westin Kierland Resort you will pay four figures easily.
Entertainment isn’t cheap either.
Tickets to parties leading up to the event usually start in the $300-$500 range and move up rather rapidly. Sports Illustrated, Shaq’s Fun House, EA Sports, DIRECT TV, Rolling Stone and Maxim are usually some of the ones that get top dollar.
Then there is the game itself.
Anthony Beyrouti of Venue Kings – a ticket brokerage firm based in Vancouver with clients all across North America – says that it will cost you over $5,000 just to get into the building.
“Super Bowl is always unpredictable but Arizona always makes for an interesting time. The sun draws the sports fans from Vancouver and Seattle and gets them out of the cold and rain. Right now, the market is just over $5,200 to get in the building on VenueKings.com and has held very steady all week. This year also coincides with the Waste Management Golf Tournament, so people from all over North America are in for a great weekend of sports and parties. Add everything up and it can get quite pricey,” states Beyrouti.
As for our extended coverage, we will be on Radio Row from the Phoenix Convention Center the entire week with our shows being available on BNN Bloomberg 1410 in Vancouver, Tuesday through Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. with a “Best of Show” Sunday from noon to 2 p.m. leading up to the broadcast of Super Bowl LVII. Podcasts of all the shows will also be available on MojOnSports.com and TodayinBC.com.
If you are a football fan, this is your fix with anyone from Joe Montana to Ryan Reynolds showing up.
We are also excited to announce that we are borrowing Nik Kowalski from the B.C. Lions organization for the week. Nik is the young man who is responsible for so much of the great social media content that the Lions produce and he will be doing the same for us from the Super Bowl. All of his work will be available on Instagram and Twitter @TheRealMoj.
Before we wrap up, I just wanted to say what a first class job that Chief Wayne Sparrow, Peter Leech and others did when it came to this past Saturday’s Celebration of Life for former Vancouver Canuck Gino Odjick at the Musqueam Reserve in Vancouver.
Of all the speakers, the one who was the most emotional was current Vegas Golden Knights President George McPhee, who flew in for the event.
McPhee was a young front office executive with the Canucks under Pat Quinn in the early 1990’s and negotiated with Odjick’s camp when he signed his first contract with the Canucks.
He told the audience that players who he had played with and against had passed away but Odjick was the first player to die that that McPhee had been a part of signing.
An emotional McPhee needed to grab a drink out of his water bottle on several occasions and even kidded that he brought it up there with him as he knew he would need some help to get through his speech.
All in all, the event was a great tribute to a man who was loved by so many.
Veteran B.C. sports personality Bob “the Moj” Marjanovich writes twice weekly for Black Press Media. And check out his weekly podcast every Monday at Today in B.C. or your local Black Press Media website.
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