The National Football League is just days away from hosting the most notable Super Bowl to date.
The Kansas City Chiefs, led by last year’s Super Bowl MVP, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, will be taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have six-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady in Super Bowl LV. It is being held in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
But, while Brady and his buddy Rob Gronkowski may be a familiar sight in the season finale, the rest of the game and surrounding pomp will be unlike anything anyone could’ve predicted this time last year when the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers.
SIMILAR TO PAST YEARS:
The Tampa Bay Super Bowl Host Committee is hosting the Super Bowl Experience, a seven-day long event that includes live music, food, beverages, and football-themed activities, which will take place at the Tampa Riverwalk.
Even with pandemic-induced restrictions, this year’s final will feature a staple of the big game: the military flyover. Three Air Force Global Strike Command bombers will perform a first-of-its-kind trifecta flyover during the National Anthem. They’ll be flying a B-1B Lancer, a B-2 Spirit, and a B-52 Stratofortress.
“Supporting this event is a tremendous honor for our command and the U.S. Air Force,” Gen. Tim Ray, AFGSC commander, said. “We look forward to this opportunity to showcase the reliability, flexibility, and precision of our bomber fleet to the nation during this exciting event.”
There will also be a Super Bowl halftime show. This year, the main performer will be hit singer The Weeknd, but it’s unclear how the pandemic will affect the performance.
President Biden will be interviewed by CBS’s Norah O’Donnell. The tradition of a pre-game presidential interview by the network broadcasting the game was started by President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump maintained the tradition for most of his presidency, participating in interviews with Fox in 2017 and 2020 and with CBS In 2019. He did not participate in an interview with NBC in 2018, when it had the rights to the big game.
Brady will be aiming for an unprecedented seventh Super Bowl victory in his historic 10th Super Bowl appearance. Mahomes is trying to lead the Chiefs to become the first back-to-back Super Bowl winners since Brady and the New England Patriots accomplished the feat in 2003 and 2004.
DIFFERENT FROM PAST YEARS:
The stands at the big game will be much emptier than in previous seasons. There will be 7,500 vaccinated healthcare workers and 14,500 additional fans in attendance at Raymond James Stadium. While the stadium holds 65,000 seats and is expandable to fit another 10,000 people, less than one-third of the seats will be filled on Sunday. The crowd size for this year’s Super Bowl is about one-third to one-fourth the size of the crowd at a normal Super Bowl, about 22,000 people.
The previous low for a Super Bowl, the inaugural game, had nearly 62,000 people in attendance.
For those in attendance, masks will be required. Jane Castor, the mayor of Tampa, signed an executive order last week mandating the use of face masks outdoors in the downtown area near the stadium. Authorities will also enforce the face mask ordinance inside bars. Fans could use the mandate to show additional support for their favorite team.
There are a handful of brands that often advertise during the Super Bowl, and some will be doing it differently for 2021. Budweiser will not feature their famous Clydesdale horses during their commercials this year and is instead “reallocating the media investment” to raise awareness about the coronavirus vaccine.
In years past, the Super Bowl has provided the home city with a significant economic boost as fans, teams, and league personnel travel to go to the big game and to experience the league’s weeklong festivities leading up to it.
To curb large indoor gatherings, the Super Bowl Experience will be limited to outdoor activities.
Last year’s Super Bowl, which was held in Miami, Florida, resulted in $572 million is new spending. A report detailed that visitor groups who traveled to see the Chiefs defeat the Niners spent, on average, $593 per day, per person, with most of that money going to entertainment, transportation, and meals.
While the Super Bowl is helpful for the airline industry, the support often varies on which teams are in the Super Bowl and how far their home cities are from the location of the big game, which is determined years in advance. Seventy-four percent of Super Bowl attendees who visited Miami for last year’s Super Bowl traveled by commercial airline, and the influx of people resulted in 368,011 visitor night stays in hotels or rental sites like Airbnb.
Even in a non-pandemic season, this year’s Super Bowl would have less economic benefit for the airline and hotel industry because the game is being played in Tampa Bay’s home stadium, meaning many of their fans don’t need to pay for airfare or lodging if they want to go to the game. It is the first time that a team has played the Super Bowl in their host city.
