NEW YORK CITY (BASN – STR/ITR) Super Bowl Week is finally upon us.

 

As the process for accepting and welcoming the playoff principals in this event has now been completed, that sound you hear is cash…slowly rolling over and over until it plops into the NYC metropolitan area.

 

Scandals or political agendas won’t stop the cash from snowballing until roughly a billion dollars will be made because The Big Game means Big Dough.

 

As a licensed fund – raiser, I knew of at least two party planners who fortune smiled on because the Denver Broncos (and QB Peyton Manning) made it to Super Sunday.  A charity event I have worked for several years in the springtime for a group (Poker For Life) was moved to SB Week for the express purpose of attracting as much celebrity cachet (and cash) as possible.

 

Notice none of those things really have anything to do with football, but it goes to show the ancillary revenue capabilities of an event that the entire world will be paying attention to.

 

Meanwhile, the only city in New York State that has a professional football team playing within its borders is getting ground into submission by an old gangster with even older agendas. So we don’t get this twisted, a gangster’s (as a member of a gang of criminals, by definition) Job One is to secure as much coin for those in his sphere of concern, and that number is usually very limited.

 

 

 

Ralph Wilson has turned Buffalo and Western New York – into his own little fiefdom. Every National Football League franchise owner group wields tremendous power because each team is among the 50 most valuable sports franchises in the world (as Forbes Magazine reminds us every year), but you guys already know this.

 

You may not know that due to the League’s special 501(c) (6) status, they don’t pay any taxes because they operate technically as a not-for-profit organization.

 

I bring these things up because “trickling down” can’t happen in an area where liquidity will not flow, and Gangsta Ralph has been making sure of that – for decades.

 

With Buffalo’s Outer Harbor in play for redevelopment and the downtown area screaming for a makeover, what little funds available to citizens who might have a little cash are being tapped like maple sap into a bucket; a sweet deal for Gangsta Ralph, but you still end up having to buy his brand of syrup!

 

Meanwhile, in Gotham City, corporate sponsors like Anheuser – Busch are leasing cruise ships to be parked in New York Harbor (reportedly right next to the aircraft carrier Intrepid) for the express purpose of being part of The Event.

 

Can you all imagine a Carnival or Norwegian – class ocean liner parked in a revamped Outer Harbor area, chock full of clients, ready to step off and drop big money for their holiday? Brand spanking new hotels filled to capacity, with upgraded rates reflective of the event, and thousands of permanent jobs enabled because the location was selected for said function?

 

In creating this game called The Super Bowl, the league commissioners – from Pete Rozelle to Paul Tagliabue to Roger Goodell – wanted this game to evolve into this humungous event; and that event has morphed into a “holiday” for many working class fans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now because this game was given to New York City due to the September 11^th Incident, the fact it will be a cold – weather game played outdoors in a brand new stadium without a retractable dome, and with potential for a snowstorm and logistical nightmare on the horizon won’t change the reality that the NY/New Jersey area will make a billion dollars…by default.

 

People will come to The City for the action alone; making The Game – literally a secondary issue; and the shock waves from all that cash may reverberate as far down south as Delaware; and as far north as Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.

 

So as Gangsta Ralph says “Let them eat concrete” while Ralph Wilson Stadium falls to pieces (I’ve seen the photos) and plays grab – ass with some of your futures, here’s something else to consider:

 

As I’m writing this piece, the Santa Clara area is already in Busy Beaver Mode building their stadium as the San Francisco 49ers new home in time for SB L in 2016. They’re still playing in the dirt out there, but they know they’re gonna get paid, and that stadium may well be paid for in full by game time that year!

 

Deep in the Heart O ’Texas, ‘Ol Jerry Jones may not have a very good team in his Dallas Cowboys, but he sure has a damn good business plan, as stadium brings in revenue from mega concerts, tournaments and other events year ‘round.

 

As all this cash is in play everywhere else it seems except Buffalo, Gangsta Ralph wants you to maintain a status quo – and shut you out while he takes what little you have; without any give – back; oh and this just in – he wants you to fix his stadium, too.

 

Don’t believe me? Ask the citizens of Seattle, who wouldn’t upgrade their basketball stadium and politicians there couldn’t strong – arm them into a favorable result on a referendum designed to allocate public funds for it.

 

Their NBA team was snatched at SuperSonic speed, and the Oklahoma City Thunder…was born.

 

I went this route in describing this because if there’s a cure for this – I believe you want it; and if there is a group that will endeavor to put forth the sweat equity and implement the plans that already have the NFL’s blessing – and revitalize your Outer Harbor area, I can see Buffalo online with a Super Bowl…in, say 2020?

 

Now…that’s vision.

michaelingram@blackathlete.com/basneditor@basnnewsroom.com

Always outnumbered…never outgunned.

Copyright © Michael – Louis Ingram all rights reserved.