Expensive Football and Other Fun

by Connie Mckissack · Published February 4, 2013 · Updated March 24, 2018

Amount of money each player on the winning Super Bowl team receives: $88,000 (almost $4M)
Cost of a 30 second Super Bowl spot: $3.5 Million (last year 78 commercials ran = $273 Million)
Median NFL player salary: $770,000 (avg years 3.5) (high profile players minimum $1m) (Totals: $130.9 million for the Ravens and $124.4 million for the 49ers)
Salary for an enlistee USMC E1 $31,500
Median household income was $50,054 in 2011, a 1.5 percent decline in real terms from 2010. This was the second consecutive annual decline in household income.
Amount of money each player on the losing Super Bowl team receives $44,000.
In the past 10 years, more than 130 companies have spent $1.85 billion on Super Bowl TV ads.
Our current national debt is at $16.5 trillion which is over One Million per tax payer. Louisiana State Debt: $37 Billion which is just over 8 Thousand per citizen. (Comparatively AL=$59k per, GA=$52k, MS=$5k)
The lowest priced ticket on the Ticketmaster website was $2,387, and the highest priced ticket was $13,120 as of 2 p.m. ET on Jan. 22. Stubhub listed tickets starting at $2,119. Regular football game seating at the Superdome accommodates roughly 69,700. Even just at the base price, and averaging the two lowest ticket prices as the norm, this comes to $2,253 for an average entry-level ticket. If all 69,700 seats averaged this, the tally comes to just over $157 million.
In 2011, the official poverty rate was 15.0 percent. There were 46.2 million people in poverty.
The percentage and number of people covered by employment based health insurance in 2011 was not statistically different from 2010, at 55.1 percent and 170.1 million.
The U.S. Census in its 2011 American Community Survey, said those living in San Francisco, ostensibly 49ers fans, had a median household income of $69,894 with a median home value of $719,800. Baltimore residents, ostensibly Ravens fans, had a median income of $38,721 and the median home value was $154,400.
The New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau was quoted as saying that the Super Bowl will generate $300 million to $400 million in direct spending. The New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation said the Super Bowl is expected to have a $432 million economic impact on the city.
In 2011, 7 MILLION children under age 18 were without health insurance, not statistically different from the 2010 estimate.
Retired NFL players are more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a form of dementia that can lead to Alzheimer’s disease, than similarly aged men who didn’t play football.
The vast majority of service members who committed suicide fell in the age range of 17-30. They also tended to fall into the enlisted ranks, with the Army and Marine Corps (the branches which suffered the most suicide casualties) typically losing members in the junior enlisted ranks.
Total percentage of U.S. soldiers wounded with serious brain or spinal injuries in Iraq war: 20%.
Total percentage of U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq War who developed serious mental health problems within 4 months of returning home: 30%.