Dave Zirin: Why Protests Should Be a Part of Super Bowl Sunday
from The Nation:
Why Protests Should Be a Part of Super Bowl Sunday
Dave Zirin on February 3, 2012 - 7:33pm ET
This Sunday, the greatest multitude in the history of the United States will be tuning into the same television show at the same time. The 2012 Super Bowl, to be played between two major media markets, the New England Patriots and New York Giants, kicks off at 6:30 pm. This year’s game can also be called, “The East Coast Bias Bowl,” the “ESPN Nocturnal Emission Bowl” or the “Pox on Both Houses Bowl.”
Popularity plus polarization will mean epic ratings. It also means a pox of sponsors branding Indianapolis’s Lucas Oil Field within an inch of its life. But while the high rollers will party down and Fortune 500 companies will have an unparalleled audience, the city of Indianapolis will reel under the weight of our national party.
Bloomberg News, which no one will mistake for The Nation, headlined an article, “Super Bowl Lands on Taxpayers’ Backs as Indianapolis Stadium Deal Sours.” Bloomberg describes a state of affairs in Indy where “Super Bowl fans are riding zip lines through downtown” while “taxpayers are digging deeper in their pockets to pay for the stadium where the game will be played.”
They report that local officials have had to hike sales and hospitality taxes to pay off $43 million in “unexpected financing costs.” The Bloomberg article joins a withering piece in the Indianapolis Business Journal about how the local economic impact will be less bonanza than meteor. No amount of extra shifts for waiters and parking lot attendants can match the tax burden they will endure in order to play host. But at least city planners can have that zipline and the “800,000-square-foot exposition” called “The NFL Experience” ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blog/166078/why-protests-should-be-part-super-bowl-sunday
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she has told me a lot about what has been going on this past few weeks. First, her niece works for Jobs For Justice and of course they fully intend/intended to protest the right to work issue, the Hyatt Hotel, etc. Then they got a call from the politicians in the city asking them not to protest this week. Yeah, right!! So then my friend's niece started being followed home by a cop each night as she left work - nice intimidation going on.
Next the city decided to throw the homeless folks a "Super Bowl party". 
They released a lot of inmates in the local jail and intended on placing the homeless there until after the super bowl. The community found out about this and raised holy hell so it didn't happen.
Finally, my best friend volunteers at Second Helpings, a kitchen that feeds the needy. Well evidently the big shots from the East Coast are/were having all of these festivities and parties but didn't want to pay big bucks for wait staff/kitchen staff so they offered Second Helpings a $10,000 donation if they would work at three of their parties and include 300 volunteers. Now each party is about 8 hours long. I did the math and although they are volunteers, that is like paying people less than $2/hr. My friend refused to do it. She said "I am happy to feed the needy but I didn't sign up to slave away for rich people." Cheap bastards couldn't have given a decent sized donation or hired people who desperately need the work for at least minimum wage.
I hate this Super Bowl shit.
