Transcripts

Commentary - The Business of the Superbowl

SUSIE GHARIB: Well, get those nachos ready, order that pizza to be delivered. Sunday is the Super Bowl, the nation`s favorite football game. Tonight`s commentator says it`s not just national pride that`s at stake. There`s a lot of money on the line as well. Here`s Rick Horrow, president of Horrow Sports Ventures.

RICK HORROW, PRES., HORROW SPORTS VENTURES: Super Bowl XL in Detroit on February 5 is extra large in every way, but none more so than from a sports business vantage. I worked with Bill Ford, former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, and the National Football League in 1996 to develop plans for the stadium that was to become Ford field. And while we knew we were creating only the third cold climate Super Bowl in history, we had no idea that the game the facility would host in 2006 would be one of the most eagerly-anticipated match ups since the contest`s inception. Consider some extra large viewer numbers. Regardless of which teams get in, the Super Bowl is watched each year by nearly 140 million Americans, 40 percent of all households. And no other event, not even the Academy Awards, captures this kind of consumer loyalty among men and women alike. Internationally, close to 500 media credentials have been issued for the game, for a possible worldwide audience of one billion people. Super sized as well is the cost of a 30-second ad at $2.6 million, a 5,000 percent increase from Super Bowl I. That compares to a top price of $750,000 for an ad during the upcoming Turin winter Olympic games. The Super Bowl has clearly evolved from a football game to its own selling season, filling the gap between Christmas and Valentines Day. And for the motor city itself, the promise of more than a $350 million Super Bowl boost seems to have come in the nick of time. I`m Rick Horrow.