Nothing Is Recession Proof

The two biggest parties in the nation, dialing it back

Washington DC area football fans have a unique perspective on things the last couple of weeks. First we had the Inauguration, when Barack Obama brought billions of people to DC to celebrate saving the country, and now the Super Bowl, the championship party for the most popular sport in the nation.

Both with the background of a massive national recession. Would sagging economic conditions put a crimp in these ginormous parties?

Beyond the basic question of whether there is less money for extravagance, there is a larger question for the heretofore bottomless business influences and sponsors of these events. About the Inauguration, when lobbying and moneyed political interests sponsor the day and the Super Bowl, when the NFL recognizes its corporate masters, the larger question is, how much fun should we look like we are having? If the millions that flow through lobbying firms and advocacy groups in the capital year round and counter cyclical businesses like booze, lipstick and lottery tickets piggybacking on the NFL and its network partners are available to sponsor giant self indulgent navel gazing celebrations of largesse, should they be used that way?

Well this year the answer has been not so much. To be sure there was plenty of excess in tribute to the halls of power here in Washington for the Inauguration, I know people that celebrated in style on lobbyist money, free booze all day at the area's premiere steakhouses, lots of gladhanding and celebrations not of a new way of doing business in the nation's capital but rather of new people to do business with, the old fashioned way, with cash, booze and networking.

Still, there was something of a pall on this year's festivities. The largest law and lobbying firms fretted over whether to be flashy, not because this is not the time to appear frugal, but rather because this is not the time to piss of a lawmaker concerned with the appearance of excess.

There were several ball cancellations, the American Music Ball, an unofficial Inaugural Ball featuring Dionne Warwick and rapper Ludacris was canceled at the last minute due to poor ticket sales literally the night before. Guests, VIPs and musical artists scheduled to attend or perform at the event found notes under their hotel room doors saying their comps had been revoked, pay up or head out. Luke Russert, Tim Russert's son, had to cancel his party as did the District of Columbia when they scrapped the Inaugural DC Ball. Others had to reduce prices to go on as scheduled.

And what about all those millions of people that were supposed to descend on Washington, the throngs ready to throw their money at the host city, such a torrent of revelry was it supposed to be that the DC Council voted to keep the bars open round the clock for the whole four days of the event. Well despite the millions of people we all saw on the mall and the teeming of the city streets as the wife and I attended our own see and be seen Inaugural events, the whole weekend was a net loser for the city to the tune of millions of dollars. The day before Barack Obama was inaugurated there were still more than one thousand hotel rooms left available in the DC area.

So much for the celebration of the century.

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Paralleling the fun but not too much fun theme of the Inauguration is this year's Super Bowl. It seems as though you cannot swing a dead cat by the tail and not hit a story of how the economic downturn is affecting Super Bowl week and the perception of the sport at large.

As with the Inauguration, the underlying effort is not actually to save money or spend less or reflect the nation's mood, but rather, the mega profitable corporatocracy in charge of the NFL wants to appear more humble so as not to piss off Joe Six Pack who cannot go to games this season because he lost his job.

Even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell knows this public relations drill, even as league revenues are up, talk gravely about the economy and concern for the product and the customer and lay low this year. Teams are taking the message to heart, the Browns and Redskins have actually laid people off from team staff, mostly on the business side and get this, the Redskins actually said, the Redskins, the team with the supposed and legendary twenty year waiting list, actually justified the layoff by saying that ticket sales were not where they should be.

As a rhetorical question, how can ticket sales not be where they should be when the team sells one hundred percent of tickets as season packages and there is a waiting list years long? I do not believe you need a degree in economics to figure out that the team runs at capacity year after year.

So, do you believe the league and the owners when they say the economy is hurting and it is beginning to take a toll on the business of the NFL? Or do you believe the players union when they say teams are as profitable as ever and rich owners are simply using the downturn as an excuse to reduce head count and increase profits at the expense of higher workloads on administrative peons?

So the parallel continues, down in Tampa this week the story is about events being canceled or dialed back. Playboy, host of a gala party in the Super Bowl city the past nine years, canceled this year's event, instead of laying down two grand to party with Hef in the host city, this year you can drop fifteen hundred to go over to Hef's house and watch it on his big screen.

The Brooks and Dunn celebrity golf tournament and party? Cancelled for lack of sponsors. Sports Illustrated's start studded swimsuit model and portly sports writer bash? Cancelled. I mean come on, if Sports Illustrated cannot muster up for a party then you know things are bad, I will bet the Super Bowl accounts for forty percent of new subscribers every year, that is deliberately angering your god.

And once again like Inauguration weekend for DC, Super Bowl week is now predicted by Tampa to miss revenue predictions as fewer people come to town, stay shorter periods and spend less money.

Enjoy it while it lasts, while the sport takes a once in a decade break to realize the fans are the customers and not the gigantic corporate masters like InBev and Pfizer and General Motors. Even if it's just for show.

Now get your Super Bowl party pants on, kickoff is in four hours.



Composite image by me. Source images, Roger Goodell: David J. Phillips / AP photo from here; Barack Obama: Getty Images from here.