Sports & Entertainment – The Super Bowl that has it all

Take Las Vegas and the NFL, add the hottest pop star in the world, a love story that has social media spinning like a pinwheel, two over-the-top teams, and you have what could be a landmark Super Bowl, cementing Sin City’s status as world sports center.

Already the biggest sports party in the United States, Las Vegas promises a Super Bowl supernova around the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers on February 11.

The defending champion Chiefs, making their fourth Super Bowl appearance in five seasons, face the 49ers, who with a win will bring home a sixth Lombardi Trophy and join the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots for the most titles all-time .

The match is fascinating, but the subplots are also rich and intriguing.

It takes a lot to overshadow a Super Bowl, but the romance between the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce and mega-pop star Taylor Swift threatens to hijack the showcase run, and maybe even the game itself, with rumblings that the All-Pro tight end could go down down on one knee after the presentation of the Lombardi Trophy and pop the question.

One jeweler is apparently even willing to hand over a $1 million engagement ring if he does.

You can bet on anything in Las Vegas, including whether Swift will return from her Saturday concert in Tokyo in time to watch her boyfriend perform.

The Japanese Embassy in the United States stirred romantics around the world by posting on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday that Swift might indeed make it to the Super Bowl on time.

“Despite the 12-hour flight and 17-hour time difference, the embassy can confidently speak now to say that if she leaves Tokyo the night after her concert, she should arrive comfortably in Las Vegas before the Super Bowl,” said the the embassy.

If Swift can make it to Las Vegas for kickoff, she may not be able to land her private jet, as parking spots at all local airports are posted with “No Spaces Available” signs.

The biggest event

The combination of Swift and the NFL, two of the most powerful forces in American popular culture, could lead to the biggest televised event in the United States since Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon in 1969.

Last year’s game between the Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles holds the Super Bowl record for the most viewers with 115 million.

With a 49.1 rating (percentage of households watching), the 1982 Super Bowl between the 49ers and the Cincinnati Bengals remains the highest-rated, and Neil Pilson, CBS’ head of sports at the time, is betting that Sunday’s game will set new viewership records.

“I’m going to go on record and say that this game will break the ratings record,” Pilson, now head of Pilson Communications, told Reuters. “All the elements are there, the two best teams, real well-known athletes on both sides, both teams have history and you also have the inclusion of Taylor Swift.”

Swift and her army of followers known as ‘Swifties’ are also expected to influence international viewing figures with the game available in 190 countries.

Only a fraction of the expected 350,000 visitors flooding Las Vegas will get their hands on one of the 70,000 Super Bowl tickets that are selling for between $7,000 and $50,000 on the resale market.

Everyone else is in Vegas to enjoy the atmosphere, and Sin City makes sure there are plenty of options.

“They’ve been coming here for years during Super Bowl weekend because of the betting opportunity, but also because of the parties that go on all over the area,” said Nancy Lowe, director of interscholastic and professional sports management programs at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

“The amount of events that happen in the week leading up to the Super Bowl is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

Big game

You only need a swimsuit, not a ticket, for Circa Casino’s Big Game Bash, where you can watch the Super Bowl on a 143-foot screen from the Swim Stadium pool.

There will be plenty of action up and down the Strip with celebrity parties from Gronk’s Beach Party to charity events like Taste of the NFL where you can try celebrity chef Mark Bucher’s Travis & Taylor burger.

Once as toxic as the nearby Nevada nuclear test sites, Las Vegas was a no-go zone for professional sports leagues because of concerns that their products would be tainted by the taint of betting.

Not long ago, the NFL wanted nothing to do with Las Vegas, but now the league has its own branded slot machines.

“I remember a time when we would do anything to sneak a sign into a Super Bowl TV opportunity,” Clark County Commission Chairman James Gibson told Reuters.

“In fact, I remember we thought we had figured out how to actually get Las Vegas on TV during the broadcast, until the NFL found it and wrote us a scathing letter.”

The National Hockey League was the first of North America’s major sports to bet on Vegas with the Golden Knights, which were founded in 2017, and it has been a huge success.

This was followed by the NFL’s Raiders three years later, with a new baseball stadium under construction to be home to a Major League Baseball team. The NBA and MLS are looking to plant their flags in the desert at some point.

“The gambling situation so other states can gamble has taken one of the sins, if you will, out of Sin City,” Lowe explained. “Now we market ourselves as the greatest arena on Earth.”

“We’re going to win the Super Bowl again without a doubt because nobody throws a party like Vegas.”

– Reuters