From our correspondent in Los Angeles,
The temperature is rising in Los Angeles, and it's not just due to the 28° on the thermometer.
Sunday, the City of Angels hosts its first Super Bowl since 1993. And after two decades without an NFL franchise in the city, the Californian megalopolis will vibrate for the LA Rams, favorites to win the title at home, at SoFi stadium in Inglewood.
Hoping that the Bengals and the gifted young quarterback Joe Burrow do not come to spoil the party.
Unless you stay at home confined as in the spring of 2020, it is impossible to escape the event of the year.
Arriving in Downtown from the south, you can see from the
highway
10 the roof of the convention center with its Super Bowl billboards, overhung by giant letters LVI, for the 56th edition of the NFL grand final.
$15 billion in profits
Adjoining the former Staples Center, which became the crypto.com Arena last Christmas, the convention center, the usual lair of the E3 video game show, is hosting the “Super Bowl experience” for the week.
Journalists collect their accreditation there, and the general public visits, for 20 dollars, an NFL museum and the official store.
I think something is happening not far from my house on Sunday #SuperBowl 🏈 pic.twitter.com/7EiivF6c8N
— Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) February 9, 2022
Better to provide the Mastercard: 55 dollars for the t-shirt, 140 dollars for the jersey of Matthew Stafford, quarterback of the Rams, and even 899 dollars for the official ball signed by the Bengals Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase.
It's not for nothing that the NFL is the most profitable league in the world, with 15 billion profits in 2019. Almost triple the British Premier League, and eight times more than our L1.
Back to basics
Los Angeles has hosted the Super Bowl eight times, including the very first in 1967. But when the Rams pack up for St Louis in 1995 and the Raiders return to Oakland, fleeing aging stadiums and declining revenues, an earthquake happens: the entertainment capital of the world finds itself deprived of the king of American sport.
Orphans, the Angelinos console themselves with the exploits of the Lakers and Kobe Bryant.
Billionaire Stan Kroenke, owner of the Rams – but also of the Denver Nuggets and Arsenal – puts an end to purgatory.
It finances via private capital the construction of the SoFi stadium, the most expensive stadium in the world, an
indoor-outdoor
UFO of nearly 6 billion dollars.
The Rams returned home in 2016 and the San Diego Chargers followed the following year.
On Sunday, with the Covid restrictions lifted, the SoFi should go to maximum configuration to accommodate 100,000 people.
Despite accelerated gentrification, with exploding rents, James Butts, the mayor of Inglewood, a 90% black and Latino suburb, insists: his city is experiencing "a real resurrection" thanks to sport.
This SoFi stadium is a bit like a hybrid of a Star Trek spaceship and the Avengers campus.
It cost nearly $6 billion.
It is the most expensive stadium in the world – about 10 stadiums in France including inflation (photo MediaPunch / Shutterstock / SIPA) pic.twitter.com/C2ds3eeCLv
— Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) February 10, 2022
All week long, Los Angeles lives to the rhythm of concerts and Super Bowl parties.
Shaquille O'Neal is going to heat up his DJ decks with Diplo and Lil Wayne.
Count 500 dollars to see Tiesto and 50 Cent at Maxim's Electric Night.
But the most anticipated show will undoubtedly be at halftime on Sunday, with Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre and Kendrick Lamar for West Coast rap, with the reinforcement of Eminem and Mary J. Blige.
Resale prices for a Super Bowl seat are indecent: more than $8,000 on average on StubHub, and up to $40,000 or $50,000 in a VIP box.
Scott, a 30-year-old 49ers fan, still hesitates: “I will watch at the last minute.
I'm ready to drop $3,000.
The Super Bowl is a once in a lifetime thing.
»
>> Go to 20
Minutes
from midnight Sunday evening to follow the Super Bowl live-like-in-LA
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