Super Bowl XLIII Preview

With two weeks until Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa Bay, we will take a daily look at the factors that will affect the game.

#2 Super Bowl Tickets

This may be the average fans best chance to see a live Super Bowl game since 2002. For those of you with short attention spans that was the first game post 9/11 and featured the high scoring St. Louis Rams, with Kurt Warner and the New England Patriots, who were making their first appearance in the championship game since 1985.

Tickets that year were easy to come by since large corporations were staying away amid security concerns and major financial and manpower cuts. This allowed many fans to get into the game paying well below face value for seats. A similar trend is occurring this year, where many corporations and companies that have taken clients or executives to the game in the past are forgoing the trip due to the economic situation, and even if they did have the money for the trip are holding off due to perception. Look for the average fan to once again be able to get into the stadium for a lot less $$$ than normal.

How does this affect the game you ask, have you ever met an Arizona Cardinal fan? No, didn't think so. Have you ever met a Steelers fan? Obviously, yes. The fans of the black and gold are known to travel to see their team play. During the regular season this year, RFK Stadium in Washington was overrun with Steeler fans. The Redskin players were very upset by this. On the other hand, the Cards had trouble selling out their playoff games. Given the chance to purchase tickets, the Steelers fans will show up in great numbers and when it doesn't cost them nearly as much as they thought to get into the game, look for Raymond James Stadium to have an overwhelming Pittsburgh feel to it.

A home game never hurt anyone, except maybe the Giants...