Lombardi would have rather have been at home in Wisconsin

Vince Lombardi wanted absolutely nothing to do with the first American Football League-National Football League World’s Championship Game. It is very ironic since the league’s championship trophy is named after him. Lombardi thought the NFL title game was the be-all, end-all NFL event. He would have rather been in Wisconsin in the middle of January, 1967 but he had a football game to coach.

Back in 1967, it was just called the “World Championship Game, AFL vs. NFL.” The game was held in the 94,000 seat Los Angeles Coliseum. The ticket prices were $12, $10 and $6 (about $116, $97 and $58 today). There were 33,000 empty seats. It was the last time a Super Bowl or the World Championship Game was not a sellout.

The first game was played on January 15^th, 1967 just 26 days after the final approval of the merger between the National Football League and the American Football League. CBS and NBC televised it using the same television feed but with different announcers. The networks charged $42,000 (about $408,000 today) for a 30 second commercial. The two leagues had to put together a game in a hurry.

The two networks paid $9.5 million ($92 million today) to televise the game.

The leagues couldn’t even agree on which ball to use, so they compromised. When Green Bay was on offense, they used the Wilson “Duke” football. When Kansas City had the ball, they used the AFL sanctioned Spalding J5-V.

In 1967, the American Football League and the Kansas City Chiefs were considered to be part of a “Mickey Mouse league” by Lombardi and the NFL. Lombardi was among those thinkers who felt that “Mickey Mouse” was a putdown.

Mickey Mouse launched the Disney empire and the trademark is worth billions globally. There is some irony in that the Walt Disney Company’s ABC- TV division had the rights to broadcast the Super Bowl along with NBC, FOX and CBS under one of the past NFL-network television agreements.

Adding injury to insult, Lombardi and his Packers team practiced in Southern California before the 1967 championship game not far from Disneyland because the NFL felt that was the best way to sell tickets to the contest The AFL was the Mickey Mouse league and not worthy of being on the same field as the NFL..

“He got a lot of pressure put on him by the other owners of the National Football League. That was a bitter relationship with the AFL and NFL,”  Jerry Kramer, one of the 1967 Lombardi’s Packers offensive linemen recalled in the 1980s. “I’m not sure there still aren’t still some rivalries in that situation.

“Lombardi got calls from virtually everyone in the NFL saying we were representing the NFL and the pride of the NFL and we couldn’t be beaten.”

Lombardi even had to deal with CBS Television Network Chairman and founder and NFL partner. Lombardi was playing for the pride of CBS including Walter Cronkite, Ed Sullivan, Lucy and Red Skelton.

“I was talking to Frank Gifford years ago and he mentioned that he announced that first Super Bowl,” Kramer continued. “Gifford said he was fairly cool, fairly calm and relaxed and we went over to put his arm on Vince’s shoulder and Lombardi was shaking like a leaf.

“Gifford said that really made me nervous.”

Gifford, of course, was the CBS announcer who played under Lombardi when Lombardi was the New York Giants offensive coach (in 2026 parlance, an offensive coordinator) in the 1950s and represented the NFL. Gifford was Lombardi favorite player.

Neither CBS nor NBC bothered to keep a video of the game. Green Bay won the matchup and Lombardi was able to exhale. He did what was necessary.

Lombardi’s teams won the 1967 and 1968 contests but Lombardi didn’t get to touch the Vince Lombardi Trophy given to the Super Bowl winner. The Super Bowl became the Super Bowl in 1969 and the championship trophy was named for Lombardi following his death in 1970.

In the decades following his Lombardi’s passing, the Super Bowl became a uniquely American quasi-celebration/holiday. The Fourth of July is America’s Birthday Party but the Super Bowl is American’s excuse for a party. Supermarkets have Super sales for countless Super parties, but it wasn’t always like this.

Today there is still that one TV feed, but the game is internationally televised. Cities bid for Super Bowls years in advance. Networks put up big money for regular season games so they could get the Super Bowl once every three years.

It’s no longer NFL vs. AFL, NFL advertisers vs. AFL advertisers. CBS vs. NBC.

There were no parties, no weeklong football orgies. In fact, it wasn’t until January 1973 when Super Bowl parties took on a different life. The Commissioner’s Party was held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. In 1967, no one could imagine how big the Super Bowl would become and that included Lombardi who would have rather have been relaxing in Wisconsin then coaching a game.

An excerpt from the ebook: America’s Passion: How a Coal Miner’s Game Became the NFL in the 20th Century

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com

Vince Lombardi

The Tampa Bay Rays joined nine other Major League Baseball teams in leaving Main Street Sports. The company struggled to meet financial commitments. The Rays regained full control of their local broadcast rights after years of uncertainty. Their former deal delivered between forty million and sixty million dollars each year. The team now enters a new era with a chance to design a modern media plan that fits the Florida market.

Rays aim to replace lost revenue with a new hybrid model

The Rays must now replace the money once supplied by Main Street Sports. The team can reach that range by building a hybrid system that blends over the air stations with cable and streaming. A statewide network can reach far beyond the Tampa Bay region. It can stretch south to Sarasota and Fort Myers. It can move east toward Orlando and Melbourne. It can extend north to Tallahassee and Jacksonville. Jacksonville is the home of new ownership leader Patrick Zalupski. This wide reach gives the Rays a rare chance to create a unified Florida network.

Over the air network offers reach and stability

A statewide over the air network built around Scripps Gray Tegna or a combination can deliver massive reach. Florida has between five and a half and six million television homes across its major markets. The Rays can secure clearance for one hundred to one hundred twenty games. They can control advertising inventory with their station partners. They avoid carriage disputes that often plague regional sports networks. This model can generate between eight and twelve million dollars each year. That estimate is based on the Padres and Diamondbacks over the air revenue splits. Florida’s larger population and multiple markets push the number upward. Stations often pay a modest rights fee and share advertising revenue.

Cable and satellite remain important revenue sources

The Rays can also negotiate cable and satellite sub fee deals with Spectrum, DirecTV, WOW and Cox. These deals can include low per subscriber fees between one dollar and one dollar fifty each month. They can include limited carriage windows inside Rays territory. They can include guaranteed minimum payments. Spectrum alone covers more than one and a half million households in Rays territory. This model can generate between twelve and eighteen million dollars each year. The number is lower than the regional sports network era but still meaningful. DirecTV remains aggressive in sports carriage. Spectrum wants local sports to reduce customer losses.

MLB TV adds a strong third pillar

MLB can produce Rays games and sell the streaming package through MLB TV. MLB keeps a portion and sends the team a guaranteed annual distribution. Teams also receive a share of national MLB TV revenue. This model can generate between twenty and twenty five million dollars each year. The Padres reportedly receive around sixty million dollars in total value. The Diamondbacks receive around fifty five million dollars. The Rays market is smaller but not dramatically smaller. MLB wants stability in Florida a key Sun Belt region. Under this plan the Rays can expect a reliable payout that lands near the middle of the league. The projected range places the Rays in a strong position to match past revenue while gaining long term security.

A complete model that matches past revenue

The Rays can combine over the air revenue cable and satellite sub fees and MLB TV distribution. The total can reach between forty and fifty five million dollars each year. That number fits within the Rays historical range of forty to sixty million dollars. The hybrid model offers more reach more flexibility and more control. It removes the risk of regional sports network bankruptcy. It improves fan access with no blackout style restrictions. MLB is quietly steering multiple clubs toward this structure.

Decisions, decisions.

The owner of the National Football League Kansas City Chiefs franchise, Clark Hunt, is locked into a lease to use the Jackson County, Missouri stadium his team calls home through the end of the 2030-31 season. Hunt is planning to build a stadium-village in Kansas about 23 miles from the Jackson County stadium starting with the 2031 NFL season. If all goes according to plan, Jackson County and Missouri will have an old football stadium and no tenant. Sure the building could hold concerts or other events but if the past is an example, the building will become a money draining relic as all the events will head over to the new stadium. The next question. What is to be done with the stadium?

In an interview with KCMO radio, Missouri House majority leader Jonathan Patterson claimed that it will cost $150 million to demolish the stadium, or $20 million a year to maintain it in its current form. There is also another problem, if county and state leaders want to demolish the facility, there is the adjacent stadium that hosts Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals franchise.  The Royals business owner John Sherman wants to leave the complex but has not made a decision on what he plans to do. In Pontiac, Michigan, it took many years and many plans but the Silverdome was eventually demolished 17 years after the NFL’s Detroit Lions business moved back to Detroit in 2001. The property now houses an Amazon distribution facility and delivery center. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, who is working to keep Sherman’s baseball business in his city, said Hunt had a lucrative offer to stay. There was a $1.5 billion stadium renovation package on the table. Hunt is going to Kansas and will leave behind a massive real estate problem in Missouri.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com