Super Bowl Boulevard

January 29, 2014

It is inarguably the biggest single sporting event in the world, and for pro football owners it is their most lucrative payday. Is the New York/New Jersey venue turning out to be what the NFL - which takes in about $9 billion a year, tax free - thought it would be? Tickets to the game are still available, meaning there remain seats unsold and already sold tickets that, for scalpers, will not bring in much extra moolah. Hotels are readily available, with prices plummeting, as those who thought they'd strike gold are instead panicking they may not break even.

A boulevard of broken dreams? Probably not. But this event is proving not as wildly successful as so many folks thought, when the NFL claimed that the economic impact of this event could reach $500 million. For the record, some good investigative reporting in the past two weeks has shown that those claims are and have always been overblown. $30 million to $120 million economic impact has been more the norm, and most of the proceeds go not to local entities, but to the corporations that own the hotels, which typically raise their rates for the game.

Tonight at 11, we'll take a closer look at security surrounding the upcoming game, and at the Super Bowl Boulevard, which opened today in Times Square.

We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the night's sports. I hope you can join Sade Baderinwa, tonight at 11.

BILL RITTER

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