Three Super Bowl 52 Takeaways (And Yes, A Super Bowl Will Come To Las Vegas One Day)
By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
One: You won’t be see TV reporters at Super Bowls sporting the Michelin Man look in puffy parkas, ski caps and ski gloves for at least five years.
Minneapolis did a wonderful job hosting Super Bowl 52.
But seven-degree temps reduced the outdoor fun to activities such as car racers Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (making his NBC Sports broadcasting debut), Martin Truex, Jr. and Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney hopping on snow tubes and zipping down a snow-covered slide in Minneapolis.
Frigid conditions will not be an issue for the next four Super Bowls because Super Bowl 53 will be at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in 2019; Super Bowl 54 will be at Hard Rock Stadium in suburban Miami in 2020; Super Bowl 55 will be at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa in 2021; and Super Bowl 56 will be at the Rams and Chargers stadium in Los Angeles in 2022.
LVSportsBiz.com predicts Super Bowl 57 in 2023 will be at the Raiders stadium here in Las Vegas. The NFL has a track record of awarding Super Bowls to communities that fork over public dollars for NFL stadiums and Las Vegas is an ideal event host setting. Las Vegas specializes in one-off big events with its 150,000 hotel rooms and the Strip provides the Super Bowl week entertainment horsepower.
Raiders President Marc Badain has already applied for a Super Bowl for the $1.8 billion, 65,000-seat domed building on 62 acres on the west side if I-15, across the interstate from Mandalay Bay and bounded by Russell Road and Polaris Avenue.
Super Bowl will be coming on Las Vegas — bet on it.
*
Two: Super Bowl 52 betting in Nevada sportsbooks set a record with $158.6 million — a mighty increase over last year’s then-record $138.5 million handle when the Patriots defeated the Falcons in overtime in Super Bowl 51. And the $158.6 million is just the legal Super Bowl gambling. Billions of dollars were bet on this Big Game across the country illegally.
The Super Bowl gambling in the sportsbooks across the state don’t necessarily increase every year.
ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT
Last year’s $138.5 million was about $6 million more than the $132.5 million wagered on the Broncos-Panthers in Super Bowl 50 in 2016. And that was a healthy increase over the $116 million bet on Patriots-Seahawks in Super Bowl 49 in 2015.
But the $116 million in 2015 was a drop from the $119.4 million wagered on Seahawks-Broncos in 2014.
From 2009-2013, Nevada’s sportsbooks reported Super Bowl wagering that increased annually.
But there was a big dip in Super Bowl gambling at the sportsbooks from 2008 to 2009 when $92 million was wagered on Giants-Patriots in ’08 and it dropped to $81.5 million for Steelers-Cardinals in ’09. (Nevada’s books lost $2.6 million in 2008, the last time they took a loss.)
The LVCVA had also forecast that 311,000 visitors would be coming to Las Vegas for Super Bowl weekend.
*
Three: The Super Bowl is a different TV animal than a regular season game because the Big Game functions as millions of community gatherings in the middle of winter attracting “viewers” who don’t care about football but still watch for the food, commercials, halftime show and socializing.
Super Bowl 52 attracted a 47.4 percent rating, down 3 percent from Super Bowl 51’s 48.8 percent.
Super Bowl 52 may have been an eight-year low in Super Bowl viewership, but it’s far from suffering a catastrophic demise being touted by NFL doomsayers.
During the regular season, the NFL did suffer slight TV ratings losses, with issues such as brain injuries, the national anthem kneeling controversy and long games with too many replay reviews shaving rating points.
But I wouldn’t write off the NFL quite yet. The league’s games still attract the highest ratings for TV programs.
And a 30-second TV commercial was more than $5 million.
So apparently, the Super Bowl broadcast still some some value.
*
Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Contact LVSportsBiz.com founder/writer Alan Snel at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com
