942 Hopmeadow St. Simsbury, CT 06070
Mailing Address: PO Box 575
860.658.7627
Mailing Address: PO Box 575
860.658.7627
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February 11, 2022This Sunday the annual contest between the two best teams in football commences.
As the LA Rams take on the Cincinnati Bengals, over 100,000 spectators are expected to fill SoFi Stadium and over 100 million more will watch from Super Bowl parties at home. Individual ticket prices for attendees range from $6,400 to $147,000 with the average cost of tickets around $9,700, not to mention the cost of traveling there, lodging and meals while away. An additional $14-15 billion is expected to be spent on Super Bowl watch parties. The average cost of a 30 second ad this year is hovering around $7 million. Players on the winning team will each receive $150,000 and those on the losing team $75,000 each for this one game.
When combined with their other post-season compensation those figures increase to $300,000 and $250,000 respectively.
And only heaven knows how much money will be exchanged through office pools, online gambling apps or other means of betting. Then there are those having no interest in football or the “big game” who host “alternate” Super Bowl events during that time, or perhaps go out to dinner and a movie instead of football.
Now everybody enjoys a good game, and there certainly is nothing wrong with such entertainment. The sporting industry provides innumerable jobs for people at all levels of education, talent and expertise.
Sports has the potential to teach our young people good values. There is much good that comes from sports. But maybe this weekend as we think about the incredible amount of money involved in this year’s Super Bowl, we might also take some time to think about those in our communities, our nation and around the globe, who could only dream of attending an event like this, who do not have a television or a home in which to watch the big game, and those who cannot afford food to feed their families let alone buy snacks for a Super Bowl party. Then there are those who hold down two and three low-wage jobs to make ends meet, while our football players receive more pay in one game than these folks will ever make in a year.
In some parishes I have been in the past, and I know occasionally it has been done here in the past, on Super Bowl Sunday, parishes host “Souper Bowl” Sunday, collecting donations and non-perishable goods to support local food pantries and soup kitchens.
While we are not organized to do that this year, I extend a challenge to the parish. If you are watching the game or attending a Super Bowl party, perhaps you would consider providing some nonperishable food items, equal in value to what you spend on snacks for the game, to our next food pantry collection. Or, if you are hosting a gathering, donate an amount equal to what is being spent on the watch party to one of our local soup kitchens or shelters.
Maybe there are a couple of parishioners privileged to actually attend the Super Bowl in LA. Would you consider a donation equal to the admission price of one ticket to an organization that works to move homeless people into permanent affordable housing, or provides rent assistance to those living in poverty?
This Sunday, let’s all enjoy the game (or whatever alternate entertainment we may seek out), while not losing sight of our responsibility to care for our most vulnerable brothers and sisters in our communities, whom we could help through the “price of admission.”
