The Super Bowl has grown over the years to become more of a national event than just a football game. This year will surely be no different as two young talented teams in the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers face off for Super Bowl LIV this weekend.
But as with any large event, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes – including from an insurance standpoint. What’s it like to financially protect and insure the Super Bowl?
Well it starts with considering the many risks that the big game faces up against.
Just how big is the “big game”?
The Crowd – 1The game will be played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami (a neutral location), which is part of the 7th most populated metro area in the nation. An estimated 74,000+ people will attend Super Bowl LIV in person. If you’ve ever wondered how much it costs to go to the game, you may not be shocked by the high expenses. 2Parking alone is expected to cost between $120 and $360, and tickets for the game can cost between $4,000 and $5,000.
3Tax revenues from the crowd coming in for the Super Bowl celebration and game alone are estimated to be in the millions. Revenues in total could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Commercials – While the game itself is a big deal, the large viewership on television has driven Super Bowl TV advertising into a mega status of its own.
4When the first Super Bowl occurred back in 1967, it reportedly cost $37,500 to purchase a Super Bowl ad. A 30-second ad spot now costs up to $5.6 million. The high price tag is influenced by the growth of the game’s popularity.
Many companies use humor or an appeal to the emotions to present their products or services to the large audience. While some Super Bowl commercials can be even more entertaining than the game itself, we should caution that if there are any insurance company ads this year, please remember what we say in our blog post, “Don’t Buy Insurance From Your Television Set”.
The Parties – The Super Bowl is bigger than the game at this point as Super Bowl parties have become a popular thing.
5,4Around 60 million people are expected to attend a Super Bowl party this year and the game now garners nearly 100 million television viewers.
6According to a 2015 study by Cornell University, the average person eats as much as 6,000 calories on Super Bowl Sunday.7,81.38 billion chicken wings are eaten on Super Bowl weekend and 12.5 million pizzas are eaten on the day of the Super Bowl. 9Beer sales for the big game have reached up to $1.3 billion.
Coincidentally, Super Bowl weekend can be one of the worst for drunk driving. If the dangers of drunk driving aren’t enough to steer you away from getting behind the wheel under the influence, read our post about the many consequences of drunk driving – which include the effects that drunk driving can have on your insurance premium.
Insuring the Super Bowl
It doesn’t take an insurance expert to realize that an event quite as large as the Super Bowl will have countless insurance needs.
There are many exposures that an insurance company needs to consider when creating an insurance strategy for the Super Bowl – because organizations and individuals (i.e. the stadium owners, the team owners, sponsored companies, television corporations, etc.) are involved in a variety of ways and there is a lot that goes in to making a Super Bowl happen.
10In an interview with Insure My Path, Martin Ridgers, who has worked as an insurance underwriter for at least 10 Super Bowls, notes that everything from merchandise sales to “jet flyovers, restaurants and liquor liability, security and maintenance contractors” are factors to consider on top of “everything that’s happening on the field”.
As a result, General Liability, Liquor Liability, Personal Injury and other common insurance protections are certainly required. Many small business owners are familiar with these types of policies and we offer them here in our office; but there is a lot more risk management involved when it comes to the Super Bowl.
10In fact, Ridgers points out that there are a number of different variables to consider when insuring the halftime show, especially in terms of liability. “There are a lot of dancers and performers to keep track of…”, not to mention questions like, “Are they using pyrotechnics? Does the stage move or change while performers are out there?”.
The halftime show is always quite the spectacle and undoubtedly poses a challenge for the insurer(s) in charge of financially securing the event - and those with an insurable interest in it.
In addition, there are some lesser known insurance policies that are necessary to protect companies involved in the production of the big game and the events and goings on related to it. 11Media Liability, for example, is a necessary insurance that covers things ranging from sound issues on broadcasts of the game to celebrity wardrobe malfunctions during the halftime show.
10On the topic of accurately evaluating and managing risk, Ridgers adds, “A lot of times they [insurance companies] send out risk control people to watch early rehearsals to determine the exposures.”
While everyone is gathered around the TV at a Super Bowl party, you surely won’t be thinking about the Super Bowl’s insurance protection. That’s just behind the scenes stuff that you don’t need to worry about.
But we don’t mind reminding you that that behind the scenes stuff matters when it’s your own insurance protection. It’s our job to protect folks like you and not only do we take that job very seriously, but we’ve been doing it for nearly 50 years. If you’d like for us to review your insurance options, contact us today.
Sources:
1https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2020/comm/superbowl.html
2https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/super-bowl/article239344863.html
3https://insnerds.com/insurance-and-the-superbowl/
4https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/02/super-bowl-53-commercials-cost
5https://www.reuters.com/article/us-media-advertising-superbowl/companies-buy-first-ever-super-bowl-ads-hope-to-gain-attention-in-streaming-era-idUSKBN1ZL1AT
6https://www.kansas.com/news/nation-world/national/article225480355.html
7https://www.chickencheck.in/infographics/super-bowl-chicken-wing-onomics-2019/
8http://www.americanpizzacommunity.com/an-estimated-12.5-million-pizzas-will-be-ordered-on-super-bowl-sunday.html
9https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2018/super-bowl-52-who-s-watching-and-whats-filling-americans-baskets/
10https://www.insuremypath.org/blog/how-insurance-makes-super-bowl-happen
11https://blog.jacobsononline.com/did-you-know-insuring-the-super-bowl