Matthew Yates
matthew@cfp.ky

People worldwide are bracing for one of the year’s biggest sporting events and so too are Cayman Islands residents.

The Super Bowl is taking place next Sunday, 5 February in the Midwest city of Indianapolis. Lucas Oil Stadium (the home of the National Football League’s Indianapolis Colts) in downtown Indianapolis serves as venue.

American football has a significant following on these shores and has even manifested into the presence of flag football. Among those that play the sport (which features no pads/helmets and no hitting) is Adrean ‘Edge’ Russell. A lineman for the Hellcats in the Cayman Islands Flag Football Association men’s league, Russell states the big game made him a fan years ago.

“The Indianapolis Colts and the Dallas Cowboys are my teams,” Russell said. “Indy I’ve supported since high school because of Peyton Manning. I watched him at college in Tennessee and I’ve followed him with the Colts. With Dallas the first game I ever watched was Super Bowl XXVII against the Buffalo Bills.

“My brother (former national team football player) John Kelly took the Bills and I picked Dallas. The Cowboys came back from a big deficit and won that game; I followed them since then. I also want to go against the stream, I don’t want to root for the Miami Dolphins like everybody else.”

Interestingly, Indianapolis, which has hosted major motorsports and basketball events, had to earn the right to be a Super Bowl host. A venue is decided roughly three to five years before the actual game with cities placing bids. Potential locales receive evaluations for stadium renovation and their ability to host. The NFL team owners make a selection on the site and the Super Bowl has never been played in a region that lacks a NFL franchise.

Russell, a dms finance administrator, has had the privilege of visiting Lucas Oil Stadium and states it’s a worthy site.

“The Super Bowl should be interesting. I’ve been to the stadium and it’s really good. It’s new, it has great seats and an atmosphere. I went in October 2009, about a year after it opened, to watch a game. They were still putting in seats.

“The only problem is the temperature, it will probably be snowy and I would advise people to dress in a few layers. If someone has the opportunity to go though, they should go. It’s something different to the usual Miami and Tampa Super Bowls.”

For the next three years the big game will be played in areas already boasting a pro team: 2013 sees Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana (home of the New Orleans Saints); 2014 sees Super Bowl XLVIII at Met-Life Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey (home of the New York Giants and New York Jets) and 2015 features Super Bowl XLIX at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona (home of the Arizona Cardinals).

A fair amount of local fans would rather head to one of those cities than Indy. Among them are Kathy Miller and Rupert Whittaker.

“I’m a big New York Giants fan and a bigger Victor Cruz fan,” Miller said. “I also love Hakeem Nicks. I like everything New York and I’m proud of the Giants (and the way they played in the playoffs). They went on a real good run.

“But the Super Bowl is so far away in Indy. It’s not a spot I’d visit, especially since it’s chilly and cold this time of year. It’s good for their sports tourism but it should be somewhere else. I’d like to have it in Florida again. It’s easy for us to get to from here.”

“I follow the New England Patriots, the team plays as a team,” Whittaker said. “They hardly have any (secondary) coverage but they’re a sound team. I’m also a big Randy Moss fan so I loved New England in the years he was there. But before that too I was a fan, I’d say dating back to their loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXI.

“With Indy, I’m not a fan of the Super Bowl going there. It’s too cold this time of year, even in a dome. I’d rather more games outdoors and keep it down South like Atlanta and Jacksonville.”

Interestingly, Super Bowls always take place on Sundays and the day of the match is a de facto American national holiday. It represents the second-largest day of food consumption in the US and generates millions of dollars in revenue for a chosen city.

The Super Bowl may focus on professional American football but it has an international appeal. The contest attracts a total audience of about 100 million viewers that permeates beyond the US and Canada. It generates the second-largest audience annually for sporting events, outdone only by the Union of European Football Associations Champions League final.

Indeed much of the Americas (North, Central and South) tune in to the Super Bowl along with the Caribbean and parts of Europe, where the league has tried to generate interest by staging matches in London.

Cayman has a large and diverse viewership that attracts droves of residents regardless of sex, age and background. Gillian Roffey, a Grand Cayman Flag Football Association women’s league player, is another football fan who intends to watch the Super Bowl.

“The Philadelphia Eagles are my team as I went to school in Philly,” Roffey said. “I love the city and I love the sport. This year’s Super Bowl will be exciting as always. There will be no Eagles in it but I’ll still watch and it will be interesting. It’s not a turnoff for me having it there in Indy. It’s good for the city since the team didn’t do very good this season.

“A lot of people watch it here, even if they never watched the regular season games. A lot do tune in, just for the commercials. I’m more interested in the actual game. People not already into the sport watch the Super Bowl but for people like me, that watch the games all season, the Super Bowl is about who the top team is in football.”

Indeed commercials are a big draw for viewers. The Super Bowl is often the most watched American television broadcast of the year and the adverts are typically over the top. Prominent brands like Budweiser and Doritos have consistently produced memorable spots that spark discussion among observers, bloggers and media outlets alike.

Interestingly, the ads are a huge financial investment for companies that often spend millions to get on TV, easily their most costly advertisements all year. Due to high viewership, commercial airtime during the Super Bowl broadcast is the most expensive of the year.

For local fans like Russell, Miller and Whittaker, those peripheral aspects add to the spectacle that is the Super Bowl.

“All of the extra stuff makes it much better,” Russell said. “It builds atmosphere and many people just watch it for commercials, some of them are very memorable. You don’t have to be at the stadium to enjoy it, just being in the city and around the fans is awesome. I’ve done that before, I was in Miami at a sports bar to watch it. The tailgating and the parties are also great. Super Bowl tickets are expensive and not everyone can go to the stadium to watch the game. But tailgating there, is like nothing else; aside from probably NASCAR tailgating.”

“All of the hype around the Super Bowl is great,” Miller said. “Sports bring everyone together more than anything else. It also brings unity among people and I love the atmosphere the game creates. I see commercials from a marketing perspective as a Radio Cayman salesperson. I understand, the Super Bowl is a big deal that’s more than just the sport of American football. Everyone is trying to cash in on the experience.”

“Other than the World Series and the World Cup, the Super Bowl is one of the biggest events that helps bring people together,” Whittaker said. “When else do you see a New York Jets fan and a Patriots fan sitting together to watch a game? I’ve never tailgated before so I don’t know about that. People have told me the only reason they watch is for commercials. It’s strange to me but they probably don’t understand the game.

“I’m cool with all of the extra stuff. I get the idea of 15 seconds of fame. But they could skip the commercials in my mind. It should be football, half-time show and more football.”