DECADENCE DOMINATES WHILE DISPARITY GROWS

Decadence Dominates While Disparity Grows

Forwarded message from moderator@portside.org

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/sports/football/02roberts.html

Sports of The Times

Decadence Dominates While Disparity Grows

By Selena Roberts

The New York Times

February 2, 2007

Miami - Just after 7 p.m. Wednesday, as a full moon was

being shown up by the South Beach lights, a man in laceless

shoes whispered to a parking meter on 18th Street and James

Avenue.

'Give me some love,' he said.

He began shaking and rocking the meter wildly to dislodge a

3-minute nickel or a 15-minute quarter.

'Love,' he kept mumbling as a white limousine cruised by,

with its undercarriage lit a velvety purple, as if Prince

were clinging to the car's wheelbase.

'Stupid,' the man said, cursing the meter, walking away.

There was no return. No loose slots.

He should try his luck shaking the pants pockets of Roger

Goodell. He is in town. You can't miss the N.F.L.'s new

commissioner. He is your glamour host, your Donatella

Versace, for Super Bowl XLI, trying his hand as a Caligula

party planner for the first time.

Super Bowl excess is of Mardi Gras-type legend, only more

lucrative and with no sacrifice to come. (We're the N.F.L.

- No Facing Lent.)

The N.F.L. holiday of indulgence is a miracle of marketing.

As reported Wednesday, the popularity of America's annual

excuse to devour impressive amounts of Velveeta dip has

reached unprecedented levels. Pop a cork, Mr. Commish.

Forbes just listed the Super Bowl as the world's most

valuable sporting event brand, worth $379 million, ahead of

the Summer Olympics ($176 million) and the World Cup ($103

million).

Here, the space between the N.F.L. and its runners-up is

the difference between an ocean-front estate and a pad on

the Intracoastal Waterway. And, also here, the distance

between glass condominiums rising like periscopes and

peeling houses on the verge of collapse is just a few

blocks in what the Census Bureau has listed as America's

third-poorest city.

The Super Bowl only illuminates the close proximity between

rich and poor and the amazing class gap in between. The

Super Bowl fits right into Miami as the decadent neighbor

of the forlorn.

For a couple of years, the N.F.L. attempted a blue-collar

outreach program of sorts as it whisked through

Jacksonville and Detroit, only to discover its corporate

partners and celebrity posse preferred fine wine to Waffle

Houses, balmy breezes to wind chills.

The N.F.L. has pitched its big-top tent, once again, in

baking-powder sands. By day, the pastel-colored Art Deco

buildings along Ocean Drive make you feel as if you're

standing amid rows of SweeTarts. By night, just street

tarts.

Amid Maserati traffic jams, $5,000-a-night hotels, $4,000

game tickets and $12,000 V.I.P. party passes, amid all this

hedonism, isn't there a return on consumption?

Perpetually sunny Super Bowl organizers have chirped about

the estimated $400 million that will be cascading over the

community. Economists in almost every local newspaper have

laughed over their pie charts at such Pollyanna math. It's

a boondoggle, they've said.

Is a single 10-minute dime going to the needy?

'The short answer is probably no,' said Sam Gil, a

spokesman for Camillus House, a homeless shelter in the

city since the 1960s. 'The Jerry Rice Roast is the only

thing that will benefit us.'

Rice, he always had the softest hands in football. Now he

was lending one. With 400 V.I.P. packages at $1,600 apiece,

with other tickets ranging from $335 to $850, a nice check

was sure to come to the House.

Gil spoke of the event around noon yesterday. By 5:30 p.m.,

a publicist for Rice said the roast, scheduled to start

today, had been canceled. It wasn't Rice's call, the

publicist said. As the Web site for the benefit stated, the

cancellation was 'due to circumstances beyond our control.'

How do you tell someone there may be nothing in their

stocking? You call Gil and find some relief that news of

the cancellation occurred after office hours. A voice mail

picked up at Camillus House.

This oasis for the needy is in the middle of the Biscayne

Boulevard construction boom. Camillus House is surrounded

by dozens of cranes that pop up like pterodactyl heads

staring over the skyline.

The cranes have a view to South Beach. On Wednesday night,

the strip of Ocean Drive currently called the Super Bowl

Motorola Mile - everything has a N.F.L. sponsor tag on it -

was jumping with action. On the sidewalk, there strolled

Reggie Bush and Vince Young. Somewhere, Serena Williams, a

South Florida resident celebrating her Australian Open

title and a Miami hostess with the mostess, was scheduled

to alight on another bash.

The scene is a Who's Who of Who's Hot. This is the locale

the N.F.L. wanted for its corporate pals with deep expense

accounts. Other leagues have All-Star Games, but the Super

Bowl is the N.F.L.'s thank you to their sponsors.

Colts and Bears fans have to fight over what's left of the

ticket split. There are a few Midwesterners around. You can

spot them. They have sunburns the shape of V-necks. Mostly,

South Beach is for the sexy crowd, which keeps the N.F.L.'s

party-on image rolling. (Imagine the N.F.L. embracing a

gay-friendly hotspot at any other time of the year.)

All along the streets, near parks dotted by the homeless,

Porsches are parked by Ferraris that are parked by Cadillac

Escalades all day. The N.F.L. meter is running. No way to

shake it.

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