The Context of Events As Well As the Context of Sporting - Research Paper Example

Whereas sporting events have been attracting participants and spectators since the invention of game, there is one defining sporting event that occurs yearly within the United States and seemingly captures the attention and imagination of the entire nation. There are of course a litany of reasons why the Super Bowl has become such a fixture of American culture; not the least of which is the clear and noticeable relation of the game of football to the gladiatorial combat of ancient Rome. However, as opposed to other large sporting events that take place both within and without of the United States, the Super Bowl is unique due to the level of spectatorship that it draws in. As a means of understanding the unique dynamics regarding such a major event, this brief analysis will consider the ways in which the event itself has grown, morphed, and come to be known as the single premier spectator event within the United States; watched by an estimated 110 million people each and every year. The juxtaposition of such a cultural and sporting event becoming part of the national fabric and identity of a nation is a fascinating topic in and of itself; however, for purposes of this analysis, the author will seek to focus a higher degree of discussion on the history of the event, the way that it has come to dominate the viewing habits of such a large number of individuals (otherwise not interested in sporting events), and the associated issues of sustainability, both environmental and economic. As with any event, there remains a latent desire within the minds of those that facilitate such an event each and every year to continue to accrue a wider level of participation and/or viewership. This of course is done for economic reasons. However, as has been the case with the Super Bowl since its very inception, the main goal of the organizers has been to create something of an American institution; in such a way, the means by which the facilitators would need to fight for ratings, viewers, and advertisers to expend massive amounts of money for but a brief second of time on the airwaves would be reduced. Though the event is today the most watched sporting event in North America, this was of course not always the case as the Super Bowl began under much simpler times and with little if any broad based interest in the game; except of course from the hard-core football fans. Broadcast in 1967, the first Super Bowl was not even a sellout crowd. Such were the humble beginnings that this institution began. Although network television felt that the game itself should be a big deal, none of the networks knew how to market the game or who would air the game when it occurred. As such, this was the only Super Bowl in the history of the game to ever be aired by two networks simultaneously. An undeniable and inescapable fact for why the Super Bowl has become such an institution and garnered such a wide viewership even from traditional non-football fans is due to the fact that the game itself so closely resembles the gladiatorial combat of ancient Rome. Moreover, even the stadium in which the game takes place is modeled after the coliseum of Rome. Though such comparisons may seem rather obscene and/or ridiculous to the untrained observer, the fact of the matter is that these factors help to transmit a type of imperial nature to a sport that may not even resonate with those that are enthralled by its cultural aspects. Indeed, many individuals who are not football fans nearly religiously engage in Super Bowl parties and pay a very large degree of attention to the game itself. Compounding this comparison is of course the fact that the United States bears many similarities to the imperial power of Rome. However, the level to which the spectacle has enjoyed fans and spectators in the recent years has not been taken for granted by those who organize each of the Super Bowls within the past few years. One does not have to reach too far into the distant past to recall that the Super Bowl Halftime Committee purposefully planned a wardrobe malfunction of Janet Jackson’s attire during the Super Bowl. This intentional faux pas was intended as nothing more than a type of publicity stunt in which the game itself as well as the halftime show, would receive a boost from all of the publicity that would be generated as a result. In this particular way, it becomes plainly evident that the directors and planners of the event were merely seeking a cheap way in which to boost the publicity of the event in much the same way that antics are planned with Hollywood actors as a way to increase visibility before a movie release or some other type of publicity enabled need. Doubtless many have seen the ridicule with which many late night television personalities direct towards the ignorance of the American populace with questions concerning governance, the legal process, world geography or current affairs; however, if these late night personalities had but asked these individuals on the street what teams faced off in the last Super Bowl it is highly doubtful that their answers would be so entertaining as almost everyone is aware of the event, the outcome, and when it took place. Yet another peculiar and fascinating aspect of the game is the fact that the Super Bowl as an event is not predetermined as a function of what teams are competing. As opposed to other sporting events where ranking, total wins, or the stroke of chance determines what stadium will be hosting the visiting team, the Super Bowl is always played at a neutral site. This, along with many of the other elements of the game only help to add to the sense of pomp and circumstance with which the annual display is set. Such a construct helps to address with the viewer or the spectator that the game itself is bigger than the meeting of two sports teams; almost something akin to a religious expression or an annual rite which is set to take place regardless of the participants. In such a way, the game itself is something more important that the sum of its participants. This fact can of course be attested to by the fact that year after year millions of individual, otherwise not aligned with any given team as a function of being a supporter or fan, tune in to watch the spectacle. Another unique and peculiar aspect of the Super Bowl as an event is when it is actually held. The timing for the game is no accident. Whereas there may seem little to look forward to with regards to the first Sunday in February, the game itself is perfectly positioned within a period of the year in which no other holidays exist and few other distractions can reduce the number of viewers that they games might otherwise have. Further within the context timing, the game is habitually played in the afternoon of this first Sunday of February. This further ensures that the viewing populace will have little else to do but to sit home and watch sports on television during the cold winter month of February. In such a way, the game not only appeals to what many have referred to as a “cultural Americanism” but also to the desire to hunker down with close friends and family in a time of the year where Christmas and New Years seem but a distant memory and watch the premier sporting event of the year. Naturally, a discussion of the Super Bowl would not be complete as an analysis of the event without regarding the effect that advertisers have on the experience as a whole. In the current era it is impossible to deny the affect that advertising and advertisers have on the way that individuals live their lives. To a large extent this level of consumer behavior helps to focus and target an even greater level of specificity with regards to how advertisers seek to engage individuals with their products. However, the recent advent of DVRs and services such as Netflix and others has meant that traditional advertising via the medium of television commercials has become somewhat of a dying method of marketing. Yet, this is most certainly not the case with the Super Bowl. As the game itself is played for the immediacy of the result, like any sporting event, the level to which advertisers can be certain that their product and/or service offerings are made available to the viewer to see is guaranteed. Additionally, the Super Bowl, unlike the other championships within American professional sports (i.e. MLB, NHL, and NBA) is a single game. There are not a series of games which the winner of the 4/7 takes the championship. The Super Bowl is intentionally a single serving mega event in which those participants and athletes are all fully aware that the end result of 4 quarters will decide who is able to take home the trophy and sport the coveted Super Bowl rings. Moreover, a type of cultural awareness has developed with regards to Super Bowl advertisements that is understood to mean that even if the game itself is somehow non-eventful or the teams that one desired to appear within the game are not represented, it is worth tuning in to watch the spectacle for the commercials alone. Such is both a foreign and unique concept due to the fact that commercials and advertisements are otherwise seen as a general annoyance which must be lived with until the real purpose for tuning in to a different television program or event is back on the air. In such a way, the cultural event known as the Super Bowl has yet another mechanism by which to attract those viewers that would otherwise have little to no interest in such an event. As a function of hosting the game at a neutral stadium, exacerbating the sense of pomp and circumstance surrounding the faceoff between the two teams, hosting the game at a point in the year where no holidays or other competition exists to give the viewer an excuse to watch the game, and capturing many hundreds of thousands of viewers that would otherwise be non-interested in the game by offering a litany of interesting commercials, the way in which the American populace engages with this game, as compared to a host of others, has been fundamentally altered. Naturally, one would be further remiss without discussing the level of escapism that sports provide to the spectator/viewer. The cold hard realities of life quickly alert individuals to the fact that war, poverty, disease, uncertainty, economic hardship, and strife are continual eventualities that we must have to learn to deal with. Although any and all television or sporting events can be helpful in forgetting such a list of truisms that have been stated previously, due to the sheer size and level of enthusiasm/expectation that the Super Bowl engenders, the escapism that the game allows is unique due to its size, enthusiasm, and scale. Though the preceding analysis has discussed the ways in which the event of the Super Bowl engages the American imagination and has become the premier sporting event as well as holding a profound cultural influence over the American populace, all of this is somewhat superfluous without discussing the ways in which the event itself is seeking to become sustainable. The word sustainable has multiple levels of meaning which will herein be discussed. Firstly, the environmental and ecological nature of the term will be analyzed as well as the social and existential realities of the popularity that the Super Bowl engenders. Firstly, with respect to the ecologically and environmentally friendly aspects of the Super Bowl, one might be surprised that such a masculine oriented event that seeks to typify the American culture has gone to great lengths to promote and utilize green alternatives to many of the non-renewable resources that it utilizes each and every year. When performing the research for this piece, this particular student was pleasantly surprised to note that the organizers of the Super Bowl have embraced the green movement and actively sought to change key components of the game that have not ascribed to a more full and complete appreciation for the many non-renewable resources that exist within the planet. But one of the ways that this has been done for the upcoming Super Bowl is by cooperating with the local energy provider to ensure that the electricity provided is from renewable sources (15,000 megawatts in total) (Eschelmann 2012). Furthermore, the organizers of the Super Bowl have sought to provide carbon credits to offset the other non-renewable sources that they will be utilizing in order to host the game. Although there is a long way to go in order to ensure that the games themselves will not only share in a higher level of appreciation for the environment but also engage this appreciation with their fans, the organizers of the Super Bowl have made a step in the right direction by paying special attention to the sustainability needs that are manifest to them. The game itself stands as an uncontested champion of television sporting events; regularly garnering audiences in excess of 100 million domestic viewers alone. However, the fact of the matter remains that since the event itself rules in popularity and as a cultural icon, there is only one direction for the event to go and that is downhill from there. As a means of seeking to ameliorate this risk, Super Bowl organizers have sought means to continue to promote the game and maintain a steady viewership which will ensure the game itself is played and enjoys a wide level of notoriety, appreciation, success, and profitability well into the future. From this secondary aspect of “sustainability”, the reader can infer that the term also refers strongly to the ability of the games to continue to be profitable and gain a wide viewership. As this brief piece has noted, the game itself is a sporting event that is so large in scope and scale it begs the preceding analysis as a means to understand and categorize it within the context of events as well as the context of sporting. As a function of this, the reader can begin to see the means by which the event has gained such a high degree of popularity as well as understanding the key means by which organizers are seeking to retain this popularity while also seeking to provide changes with the times. Such an understanding is integral in seeking to promote any event as understanding the ways in which corporate responsibility, consumer tastes, and the changing climate of needs wants and desires is the intersection point between success and failure. Reference Eschelmann, T. (2012, January 14). A Pleasant Surprise: Super Bowl XLVI Goes Green! : TreeHugger. TreeHugger. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/superbowl-46-goes-green.html Read More