Authored by Dave Zirin via The Nation,
The Super Bowl is like prom for the 1 percent. When the big game comes to town, it’s accompanied by private jets, parties, and nonstop bottle service. That should be enough, but it never is. The bacchanalia also comes festooned with public funds for the NFL, an overwhelming police presence, and the removal of the poor. It’s a world of fun on our TVs, but it’s a wrecking ball for local communities.
This year the game is in Miami, and the scams are starting to seep into public consciousness. As the Miami Herald is reporting, the NFL booked 1 million dollars’ worth of rooms at the J.W. Marriott Marquis hotel and Aventura’s Turnberry resort for the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers players and coaches—and sent the city the bill.
Even though the NFL is a gargantuan corporate operation and both teams are owned by billionaires, Miami (where 27 percent of children live below the poverty line) is on the hook for the hotel accommodations. This is just part of a $4 million welfare package with which the city has gifted NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who makes 10 times that amount in yearly salary. That $4 million does not include the costs of the police and security presence required to host the game. Rodney Barreto, the chairman of Miami’s Host Committee, said to the Herald, “These are basically things we have to do to get them to come. If we’re not doing it, another city is.”
The police presence will be “an extraordinary deployment of law enforcement assets, even by recent standards, in keeping with heightened global tensions and fears of home-grown violence.” According to Reuters, Super Bowl LIV “is a so-called SEAR 1 event, affording it the highest level of federal resources, including explosive detection canine teams, cyber risk assessments and air security. Coordinated by the U.S. Secret Service, the security force includes operations by the U.S. Coast Guard, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security.”
In addition, Miami police will lead “lead a massive ground operation with thousands of officers… on foot, horseback, in boats, and in the air.”
While the police roam the city and public dollars flow into the NFL’s coffers, the league is engaging in Kabuki theater charity: its spoonful of sugar to help the poison go down, showy presentations so it won’t look like a parasite. The league donated $100,000 to a homeless shelter that will house those displaced from Bayfront Park by the Super Bowl. This sounds nice, but the donation will actually help facilitate their removal from the streets so they’re not an eyesore, or worse, a reminder of the human costs of economic inequality. In addition, Dak Prescott, quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, is being praised for donating 100,000 bowls of Campbell’s Chunky Soup (Prescott’s sponsor) to local homeless shelters. This is the synthesis of commercialism and philanthropy that the NFL adores.
Yet there won’t only be police and soup. There will also be protest. Residents of the historic Miami Gardens neighborhood along with the Miami-Dade NAACP will be protesting on game day at the site of the Super Bowl, HardRock Stadium, in a fight to stop Formula 1 racing on public streets. The racing circuit has been invited to Miami Gardens by HardRock Stadium and Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. F1 racing has been rejected by numerous communities because of environmental impact and traffic concerns. Ross doesn’t have such concerns about the residents in Miami Gardens, so they will be using the platform of the Super Bowl to fight back.
They won’t be alone. While private planes will be incoming in great numbers, airport workers in Miami will be protesting low wages and expensive health insurance costs with a Super Bowl week hunger strike. They are demonstrating against their employer, the airline catering subcontractor Sky Chefs. Sky Chefs works with, among other entities, American Airlines. Their Union, Unite Here, is currently in negotiations with Sky Chefs for a living wage. One worker, Ibis Boggiano, said to the Herald, “We are sacrificing our health so that they will hear us.”
The demonstration is called “Fast for Our Families.” On Monday, the workers were joined at a press conference by NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, who said, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that all labor has dignity. Let’s remember, as hundreds of thousands of people descend onto Miami this week, that behind every Super Bowl party and celebration, there are men and women doing the work behind the scenes to be able to feed their families. The NFLPA is proud to stand in solidarity with airline catering this week, and shame on American Airlines for not taking action to make sure they are provided a living wage.”
The Super Bowl more than ever is a microcosm of this country. The super-wealthy will be oozing from one heavily guarded party to the next, while the hungry hope to be seen amid the flashing lights and heard above the ceaseless din.
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All this so grown men can chase an oddly shaped ball around.
I’m a misanthrope for many reason, and this is one of them.
The super bowl as all professional sports have been overcome with progressive (race, culture, gender) stupidity and are not worth the price of admission. It is no longer football or basketball or whatever but a showcase for the classless clowns within the organizations to demonstrate the opinions, attitudes and agendas.
And the halftime shows have become nothing but occult witchcraft rituals . If any of you decide to watch the halftime show pay close attention and you will see the worship of fallen angels especially if the celebrity is white.
Wouldn’t even know the game was today if not for some advertising at the grocery store. Couldn’t care less.
NFL : Billionaires & Millionaires jockeying , showboating and bragging about how to split up the multibillion dollar pie ! Like all professional sports !
I enjoy watching a game but it does not rule my life .
It always slays me that the guy who doesn’t know who any of his government reps are or what they did that directly fucks him up the ass daily but he knows every stat on every player in a particular sport along with the injury reports etc…. Priorities buddy Priorities !
As for pro sports and the charitable funding done , that’s very nice and I’m sure most feel very good promoting the good that may come from it .
However when when your pulling down $20 mill plus a season and you drop $100 grand in the charity bucket everybody acts like you should be nominated for sainthood !
The wife and I put $20 bucks in the collection plate every Sunday and no we don’t miss out on much doing that but the charitable gift has the same impact on us as the sports stars $100 grand .
But we are just a couple shmucks that can’t write it off but you bet the sports stars tax attorney has it all lined up in the plus column .
I spent a ton of cash at Disney world and Orlando did not comp me squat as matter of fact they taxed me for a room a car and every meal I bought .
Just Sayin …LMAO
I’m as class conscious as the next guy but this article reeks of rich them and poor us bullshit. It is not the fault of football players or team owners that there are poor people or people working for low wages. Not every event is a stage for socialism and equal outcomes. Take the game elsewhere and the local misery abides.
Agreed but the NFL should pay the same for the room as any other group that books a large number of rooms . The point is it should not cost the taxpayers of FLA
I had a loooong talk with my father this morning. The incongruency from topic/point to topic/point was sad.
In response to the massive financial outlay, city leaders always cite the massive “millions” in business, etc. that the Super Bowl brings to the city. But of course, much like the greatest “grift” of all – the Olympics – ONLY A LIMITED NUMBER every really benefit. That list is quite short, especially compared to the millions who will be forced to pay higher sales taxes, property taxes, business taxes, permit costs, etc. to cover the costs to the city. But heaven forbid we make those who benefit pay the costs. That would be like forcing parents to pay for their OWN children’s education instead of putting a gun to every property owner’s head and making all of them pay instead for something they don’t personally benefit from.
Wrong battle m Mr. Lib.
Football shenanigans here are the same game played by the soccer teams elsewhere. It is bread and circuses played on a global scale. The rich folks swoop in, fuck your daughters and award themselves trophies.
Public schools, otoh, keep your kids out of the labor force so you can keep your job at McDonald’s and insure that the ruffians learn some manners.