Apple, Other Tech Companies Give $2 Million Each to Cover Taxpayer Costs of Super Bowl 50

Great way to hell offset costs for the city I like this idea a lot.

Great job big tech companies.

It really is awesome to see everyone help out. (Yes I know it's not just from the goodness of their heart, but still this will really help the local economy not have that huge burden on them)

Also....go 9ers!!!

For the American market, the Super Bowl is the biggest media event so this makes sense in that market. But world wide, the World Cup is where the action is, and this year that means Brazil starting in a week. Clearly Beats is trying to tie in ther ads to the cup with their recent ads focused on Futbol players wearing beats headphones. I have yet to see other apple tie ins to the cup, which would be a missed opportunity IMO.

World Cup is bigger...bla bla bla...Futbol is better than football...bla bla bla. This debate pops up every four years. Sick of it.

lewisd25 said:

World Cup is bigger...bla bla bla...Futbol is better than football...bla bla bla. This debate pops up every four years. Sick of it.

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It's not really much of a debate, it's fact. American sports are practically only watched/followed in America. The football (soccer) World Cup is watched globally.

keysofanxiety said:

It's not really much of a debate, it's fact. American sports are practically only watched/followed in America. The football (soccer) World Cup is watched globally.

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I don't care if its a debate or not. Football may not be as loved internationally, but it is a much larger business than soccer. Close to $10B in revenue.

lewisd25 said:

I don't care if its a debate or not. Football may not be as loved internationally, but it is a much larger business than soccer. Close to $10B in revenue.

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It really, really isn't a much larger business. Simply the top 3 football teams in the world (clubs, not countries) exceed that $10B revenue by themselves ...

... not to mention transfer costs for players regularly exceed £20 million. I don't really want to have this argument but I fear you've been misinformed.

lewisd25 said:

I don't care if its a debate or not. Football may not be as loved internationally, but it is a much larger business than soccer. Close to $10B in revenue.

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And we all know that all that matters is the money.

Good on them to pay the extra costs. Football as a private enterprise should not have to rely on public financing for their stadiums or other activities. Lord knows they make enough money.

keysofanxiety said:

It's not really much of a debate, it's fact. American sports are practically only watched/followed in America. The football (soccer) World Cup is watched globally.

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Sorry but you're wrong if you think the NFL is only really watched in America. The NFL season is huge here in the uk, so much so that regular season games are played here at Wembley. The NFL is also constantly considering the possibility of a London franchise.

As for the Super Bowl, world wide viewing figures for the game hover around the 1 billion mark each year, so to say that it's practically only watched by Americans is a fundamentally flawed view

EDIT: basically this is a huge advertising opportunity for any company

When people say "the World Game" I think soccer or maybe rugby, not NFL. I bet most people would say the same.

Cuban Missles said:

For the American market, the Super Bowl is the biggest media event so this makes sense in that market. But world wide, the World Cup is where the action is, and this year that means Brazil starting in a week. Clearly Beats is trying to tie in ther ads to the cup with their recent ads focused on Futbol players wearing beats headphones. I have yet to see other apple tie ins to the cup, which would be a missed opportunity IMO.

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Beats is easy to tie in into the World Cup, since they do celebrity endorsements all the time. If Apple itself was to do world cup promotions, I hope that it's done tastefully, and not just a tacked on section in the App Store.

Proji said:

Sorry but you're wrong if you think the NFL is only really watched in America. The NFL season is huge here in the uk, so much so that regular season games are played here at Wembley. The NFL is also constantly considering the possibility of a London franchise.

As for the Super Bowl, world wide viewing figures for the game hover around the 1 billion mark each year, so to say that it's practically only watched by Americans is a fundamentally flawed view

EDIT: basically this is a huge advertising opportunity for any company

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You are correct. SuperBowl is watched internationally by hundreds of millions of viewers. While its regarded as America's sport, and maybe American's take it more seriously and throw huge parties, its still watched globally.

Proji said:

Sorry but you're wrong if you think the NFL is only really watched in America. The NFL season is huge here in the uk, so much so that regular season games are played here at Wembley. The NFL is also constantly considering the possibility of a London franchise.

As for the Super Bowl, world wide viewing figures for the game hover around the 1 billion mark each year, so to say that it's practically only watched by Americans is a fundamentally flawed view

EDIT: basically this is a huge advertising opportunity for any company

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Glad to see NFL fans overseas. Thank you!

Would be great if someday there was an EFC for Europe. 16 teams in the conference like the AFC and NFC. Four divisions based on geography. Doing it that way would reduce travel costs as there are only a few inter-conference games per season for each team. Could even increase the season to 18 regular season games and 2 preseason so that it's more likely that conferences will mix since there would now be three. Only thing is 16 expansion teams would be a monumental task, and it would be hard to find a large source of NFL-caliber players at first since it's not a common sport in Europe that kids play since youth or strength train for. For now it's only a dream but I would love to see expansion. It would definitely inject some much needed variety into the league. They would also have to rework the playoff system as you'd end up with a three-way Superbowl.

I also think companies should help offset the costs, as should the NFL itself. SuperBowl games have become so overpriced that it is ultimately a corporate event. Even regular games with some teams charge insane prices. I remember getting free tickets to a Yankees game before they moved to the new stadium. Over $400 a ticket to sit near the third baseline!

So if the Super Bowl is held in the following cities, here are the possible items to offset the cost of hosting:

• Detroit - A 1973 Ford Pinto, a Temptations Greatest Hits CD and a bag of weed.

• Miami - 3000 gallons of sunscreen and a brick of cocaine.

• Meadowlands - Snookie

• Oakland - Bulletproof jackets for all attendees

I went to a FFC football game last year while in London and I nearly fell asleep about half way through it. It was exciting at first, but it became very boring. No score until the last few minutes. Fulham won. I knew I'd better keep awake for the sake of not getting thrown out lol. Sorry, but American football is a 1000x more exciting.

Wish this would have happened last year. NJ got railroaded since most of the fans went to NYC instead of NJ like was promised to all the small businesses. So taxpayers are getting stuck with deficit.

That $2M each is chump change for advertising too! Definitely win-win.

lewisd25 said:

I don't care if its a debate or not. Football may not be as loved internationally, but it is a much larger business than soccer. Close to $10B in revenue.

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Just the top 5 leagues in Europe generate over $13 billion (9.8 billion Euros) and there are a lot more leagues to add on top of that around the world:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27667472

As a showpiece the Super Bowl (final game) is bigger than the World Cup final in terms of viewing figures. But to suggest American Football is a larger business overall than soccer is not true.

Proji said:

Sorry but you're wrong if you think the NFL is only really watched in America. The NFL season is huge here in the uk, so much so that regular season games are played here at Wembley. The NFL is also constantly considering the possibility of a London franchise.

As for the Super Bowl, world wide viewing figures for the game hover around the 1 billion mark each year, so to say that it's practically only watched by Americans is a fundamentally flawed view

EDIT: basically this is a huge advertising opportunity for any company

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I wouldn't call NFL huge in the UK. Definitely growing, but still small compared to the more established sports. When it's Super Bowl time you hear a few people talk about it and see some articles in the UK media. But for the rest of the season it barely registers for the general public. I like it though and have been tuning in for the last few years, but don't pay much attention to the regular season.

Same for the NBA. I mostly only start to pay attention during the play offs and start watching during the finals.

DaveHuck said:

So if the Super Bowl is held in the following cities, here are the possible items to offset the cost of hosting:

• Detroit - A 1973 Ford Pinto, a Temptations Greatest Hits CD and a bag of weed.

• Miami - 3000 gallons of sunscreen and a brick of cocaine.

• Meadowlands - Snookie

• Oakland - Bulletproof jackets for all attendees

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MacRumors pls bring back downvote button

lewisd25 said:

I don't care if its a debate or not. Football may not be as loved internationally, but it is a much larger business than soccer. Close to $10B in revenue.

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I'm not really interested in which is bigger, or which is more of an event worth being involved in for Apple, but the statement you make is obviously wrong:

The worldwide sports events market, defined as all ticketing, media and marketing revenues for major sports, was worth €45 billion ($64 billion) in 2009. Football (soccer) remains king: Global revenues for this sport equal €20 billion ($28 billion) yearly—almost as much as the combined €23 billion ($32 billion) in revenues for all U.S. sports - See more at: http://www.atkearney.com/en_GB/pape.../the-sports-market/10192#sthash.q7ISXIyL.dpuf

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Source: http://www.atkearney.com/en_GB/paper/-/asset_publisher/dVxv4Hz2h8bS/content/the-sports-market/10192

Someone else suggests that the Superbowl is watched by a billion people (I find this doubtful to start with, but), http://www.ibtimes.com/super-bowl-2...ies-will-watch-american-football-game-1551791 says that:

While it’s strictly played in the United States with a huge majority of the participants sporting American passports…

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And appears to go on to suggest that the audience will be around 111 million - a long way short of 1 billion.

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6758280/least-1-billion-saw-part-2010-world-cup-final

says that 1 billion people watched part of the 2010 football world cup final in South Africa.

About Football vs soccer: please stop the dick measuring and enjoy your favourite sport!

Proji said:

Sorry but you're wrong if you think the NFL is only really watched in America. The NFL season is huge here in the uk, so much so that regular season games are played here at Wembley. The NFL is also constantly considering the possibility of a London franchise.

As for the Super Bowl, world wide viewing figures for the game hover around the 1 billion mark each year, so to say that it's practically only watched by Americans is a fundamentally flawed view

EDIT: basically this is a huge advertising opportunity for any company

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I did not mean to start this debate with my early post. Let me be clear. American Football (where the ball and foot almost never touch) is watched in many countries by many people. Futbol (were it is a penalty if most players touch the ball with their hands) is watched in more countries by more people. Each American Football team makes a lot of money but there are only 32 teams, so the revenue is limited to what the 32 teams make(at the official professional level). In Futbol there are leagues all over the world including the US. Taking only Divsion 1 teams recognized by FIFA, there are hundreds of team in the world. Even if the revenue per team is lower than the that of an NFL team (which is not true), the shear number of team means that the revenue in total is much higher than the NFL. In terms of profit, the NFL has more control and in general has a very healthy profit. In Futbol, profit is more of a concept than it is a reality in many places. Finally, in terms of media expediture on advertising and on viewership, Futbol get way more viewers throughout the world than does NFL. Even Superbowl versus World cup, its not close.

Oh, and one more thing... look on the web to see the list of most expensive clubs of any sports and you will find that the number 1 club/team is Futbol. Real Madrid at $USD3.4B and Barcelona at $USD3.2B. The most expensive American team is the Dallas Cowboys at $USD2.2B. (source is 2014 Forbes)

All of this was intended to state that it is good that apple spend money in the US for goodwill and advertising, but it also needs to do so in other venues like the world cup. Now let's all get a beer and watch some Futbol or whatever you like. I know a bar that has 100 screens and we can all watch whatever at the same time.

lewisd25 said:

I don't care if its a debate or not. Football may not be as loved internationally, but it is a much larger business than soccer. Close to $10B in revenue.

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You have that right. Futbol / Soccer is a poor man's sport. Most of all, if you look at the history of the soccer, it was designed by British colonists to have the locals engage in a sport that teaches no combat skills. Hence the rules you cannot use your arms. Running and kicking a ball on a battlefield gets you killed quick.