So What Is This Super Bowl?

It's ironic that North Texas' first Super Bowl comes 45 years after the idea for the very game was hatched in the parking garage of Dallas' Love Field.

That's right.

The Super Bowl was created when Dallas Cowboys General Manager Tex Schramm and Kansas City Chiefs Owner and AFL Founder Lamar Hunt held their clandestine meeting in the parking garage of Love Field. They were trying to negotiate the formation of a new NFL/AFL merger which would split the NFL into two conferences. Schramm's Cowboys would anchor the NFC and Hunt's Chiefs would anchor the AFC.

Hunt would later coin the phrase "Super Bowl" after watching his daughter play with one of her toys called a "Super Ball." Hunts' Chiefs and Schramms' Cowboys would go on to play in 4 of the first 6 NFL/AFL Championship games, winning two. And, although the Kansas City Chiefs played and lost in Super Bowl I (it was originally called the AFL/NFL Championship Game,) they would make it back three years later and win their only Super Bowl. And the Dallas Cowboys played in five Super Bowls in the 1970's, winning two and were the only NFC team to win a Super Bowl in the 70's.

So against that backdrop, an estimated 150,000 visitors will embark on Dallas/Fort Worth later this week for Super Bowl XLV. Sadly, both Hunt and Schramm have passed but these two wily entrepreneurs who created this game, would simply be amazed at the monster they have created called Super Bowl.

The North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee estimates over $600 million in economic spending will envelope the North Texas area (the name the surrounding counties created to prevent everything being called "Dallas.") A separate study just released by PriceWatersHouseCoopers pegs the number closer to $200 million. At any rate, this is big business and as the NFL proudly promotes, "It's More Than Just a Game."

And, the game will be played in the most expensive and largest stadium in Super Bowl history: the $1.2 billion Cowboys stadium with an estimated record crowd of 105,000 and counting (the NFL just added 15,000 temporary seats) who will purchase the most expensive ticket in sports (nflticketexchange.com had 1,900 tickets on sale Monday ranging from $2,500 to $16,000.) Plus, over 5,000 credentialed media members will report on it and an estimated worldwide audience of over 100 million will watch it live on television.

So whether you are a serious, casual or just an "experience" fan, sit back and relax and enjoy the largest single sporting event in the world: Super Bowl. Right here in our own backyard.