Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Steve Otto guesses that Super Bowl XLIII is going to run about nine months long. Using local media as the judge, I’d say it has already begun.

Both dailies had stories on Tampa’s Super Bowl XLIII on the day of Super Bowl XLII. The St. Pete Times wants to know what kind of hoopla is in store for 2009, and tells us the Riverwalk won’t be ready in time. The Tampa Tribune said that Tampa has a lot riding on the game, and a useless multi-page report (Super Bowl: One Year Out) asks questions they can’t answer:

• Q. What are the possible effects on the city? A. Not much - most things won’t be ready.
• Q. What is it like? A. Unless you are rich, you will never know.
• Q. How much will tickets cost? A. Don’t Know
• Q. Where will the parties be? A. Not Sure
• Q. Who will be the halftime entertainment? A. No Idea.

Other media outlets began with the nonsense this week, too.

• NBC began promoting their coverage of the event 362 days before - a record.
• Bay News Nine says Tampa has Super Bowl on the brain.
• Tampa Bay Business Journal: Countdown begins for Tampa’s Super Bowl
• My Fox Tampa Bay: Tampa’s next!
• Bradenton Herald: focus moves to Tampa

Detractors are already lining up too. Michael Hussey has already called it a swindle (beware popups), based on a report proving no economic impact found by Mike Deeson at Tampa Bay’s 10.

So Steve Otto is off by a couple of months. Super Bowl XLIII will be with us for a full year. Or as Wayne Garcia sees it, Tampa is already batsh*t for the Super Bowl. Xtra Large Aye, Aye, Aye, indeed!!

And who are we to buck the tide? We may as well be batsh*t for it too. We altered a familiar banner graphic, and stuck it on the header of our own Super Bowl XLIII page - Sticks of Fire’s Bowl of Super. I have no idea what we’ll do with it, but for the next 11 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, and 8 hours, anything we learn about Tampa’s Super Bowls will be found there.