superbowl SUPER BOWL ticketsThe San Diego Union-Tribune
January 18, 1998, Sunday

Crash course in NFL Math

SUPER BOWL XXXII

BYLINE: PETER ROWE

I don't know about you, but I've always regarded math as divisive. In school, it multiplied my fears, subtracted several of my IQ points and added to my woes.

So, how nervous does it make me to join my esteemed and more numerically adept colleague, Mark Sauer, in today's "Super Bowl By the Numbers " feature? Don't let me count the ways. Please.

Instead, grab your calculators and re-check these figures:

$18,000,000 -- Amount Qualcomm, the San Diego wireless communications firm, paid to attach its name to the stadium.

$2,600,000 -- Average cost for one minute of TV advertising for 1998 Super Bowl.

6.92 -- Number of minutes of network exposure before Qualcomm's investment looks like a great deal.

1 -- Number of stars Union-Tribune critic Arthur Salm gave "Firestorm, " former NFL star and current "Fox NFL Sunday " host Howie Long's latest movie.

1,000,000 -- Number of digs Long will endure from co-hosts.

5 -- Number of years San Diego officials have been organizing Super Bowl XXXII.

5 -- Number of years they should have devoted to figuring out where to put the new airport.

5 -- . . . to the Convention Center expansion. to the new downtown library.

24 -- Number of hours a day Cox Channel 4 is devoting to pre-game coverage.

25 -- Number of hours it seems like.

95,000,000 -- Number of Americans who remember seeing the Joe Namath shaving cream commercial.

0 -- number of Americans who remember the name of the vaguely Scandinavian babe who cooed, "Men. Take it off. Take it all the way . . . off. "

39,000 -- Number of readers who are, right this instant, calling the Union-Tribune's readers' representative to complain about this columnist's use of the blatantly sexist term, "Scandinavian. "

1 -- Number of memorable Super Bowl halftime shows.

1 -- Number of memorable Super Bowl halftime shows that were "In Living Color " specials.

68,500 -- Number of seats in the stadium. tickets being sold by scalpers who guarantee, "This is right on the 50-yard line. "

0 -- number of empty seats Super Bowl Sunday in the City Box, a luxury skybox for members of the City Council, County Board of Supervisors, the City Attorney and other public officials.

0 -- number of public officials who will admit to being anywhere near the City Box on Jan. 25, 1998.

24 -- Number of fat grams in a single chocolate-coated vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar.

24,000 -- Number of fat grams in a single stadium hot dog. -- Number of game day hot dogs -- "and gimme the works! " -- Mayor Golding will order.

.5 -- Number of hours it takes the average NFL player to burn off all the fat grams in nine hot dogs.

99 -- Percentage of TV sets, worldwide, that will tune in for the kickoff.

9 -- Percentage that will remain tuned in for the halftime show.

100 -- Percentage that would stay tuned in for the halftime show if it featured Kathie Lee smacking husband/man-about-town/ "Game of the Week " announcer Frank Gifford.

XXXI -- Number of Super Bowl games that Siskel and Ebert awarded two thumbs down.

41 -- Percentage of scalpers who insist Elvis is alive and headlining the halftime show.

89 -- Percentage of heterosexual men who are still thinking about that Scandinavian babe.

39,000 -- Number of readers who just punched their phone's redial button.

360 -- Number of degrees in a circle. While this has nothing to do with the Super Bowl, there's no way I'm going to waste the only fact I still remember from math class.

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