WORLD PROPERTY CHANNEL ®

• Experts Divided on How Much Money the Big Game Will Generate --$500M or $50M
• Eleven of 30 Major Hotels Sold Out, Says Miami Herald
• Seventy-five-year-old Delano Hotel, Miami Beach, Offering Penthouse for $12,000 Per Night
• Newer Hotels Fill Up Quickly After Cutting Prices; Smaller Lodging Sites Wait and Pray
• Second-Tier Inns Hope to Gross Average $300 Per Night vs. $150 for Regular February Weekend
• Some Area Villas Offer 4-to-5-bedroom Rentals from $5,500 to $9,900 Per Night
• Online Hotel Booking Agent Slashes Weekend Package Prices to $3,500 from $5,000 to Cope With Thin Demand
• Online Ticket Seller Slashes Game Tickets to $1,500 from $3,000 as Game Deadline Nears
• 24% of Ticket Sales at Stubhub.com Going to Louisiana Fans; Only 7% to Indiana Supporters
• Philadelphia's Annual Chicken Wing-Eating Event Expected to Draw 20,000 Spectators to Wachovia Center
• Frito-Lay Turns Out Additional 10 Million Pounds of Potato and Tortilla Chips
• National Chicken Council Estimates 450 million chicken wings totaling 90 million pounds have been produced nationally for the event
• NFL Picks Fort Lauderdale as Media Center Headquarters, triggering Rush of Area Hotel Bookings in Broward County
• Southwest Airlines Offers Discounted Prices on Indianapolis to Fort Lauderdale Flights
• Retailers Walmart, Sears and Best Buy Drop TV Prices by $300 to $900 on Some Models

Drew Brees, Saints QB

(MIAMI, FL) -- Super Bowl 44, featuring the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints in Miami's Sun Life Stadium will be the most watched television sports event of the year Sunday, Feb. 7 - but it may not ring overly loud at South Florida merchants' cash registers.

The reason: The two-year-old Recession is hurting gross sales derived from America's traditional entertainment icon.  

Economists are divided on how much gross revenue the game, the weekend and the week leading up to the game will generate for South Florida merchants.

The high estimated figure, from the National Football League, is $500 million; the low, $50 million. Conservative estimates place the number at about $200 million - low by previous Super Bowl counts.

Besides the Recession, hurting gross sales figures are the profiles of the two teams and their fans, point out game mavens.

For example, Indianapolis Colts were in South Florida for the 2007 Super Bowl and even then didn't bring truckloads of fans with them.  New Orleans fans come from a smaller metro area and are not expected to pay the sky-high hotel room prices in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties.

"Very disappointing," Anbritt Stengele, owner, sportstraveler.net, tells The Miami Herald.  Stengele has slashed weekend Super Bowl packages to $3,500.  Game tickets are offered at $1,500.  Hotel rooms previously offered at $399 per night are down to $289--and falling.

Stubhub.com, an online re-seller of Super Bowl tickets, notes 24% of its ticket sales are going to Louisiana buyers; 12% to Florida fans; and only 7% to Indiana customers.  Fans from Texas and New York bought more tickets than fans from Indiana.

Stubhub's ticket packages were listed at $2,549 to $5,199.  Single tickets were listed from $295 to $3,088.  The average ticket price of $2,402 was less than the average price from the last four years, according to Stubhub.com's web site.

Big-name hotels near the game and media sites are doing well.

The eight-month-old W Fort Lauderdale Hotel has sold 90% or 436 of its 466 rooms at starting rates of $699.  "...Looking very, very good," hotel manager Scott Brooks tells The Herald.

The nearby Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale has only a few suites left--the least expensive at $2,500 per night.

Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach

In Miami-Dade, Villas of Distinction on its online website offers a four-bedroom villa rental at its Jasmine property at prices starting at $9,900 per night. At its Stella villas on Palm Island, a five-bedroom premises starts at $5,500 per night.

On Miami Beach, the Eden Roc reduced its $879-per-night room price to $409. The Beachcomber revised its $421 asking price to $129.  The 1,504-room Fontainebleau Miami Beach, the largest in South Florida, is sold out.

Meanwhile, at  the 45-room, 60-year-old Cavalier Hotel on South Beach, owner Ralph Abravaya has sold only 10 rooms, charging $350 per night. His regular rate is $155.

Like some smaller South Beach inns, lodging sites at the Florida Keys, an hour's drive south from Miami, are less ecstatic over sharing some of the revenue fallout from the sports event.

John Haviaras, general manager, Marriott Key Largo Resort, tells Florida Keys News.com a large inventory of rooms in Miami-Dade and Broward counties is the main reason the Upper Keys is not sharing in the lodging windfall from the Super Bowl.

Even retailers Walmart, Sears and Best Buy are cutting prices to jack up sales.

According to a roundup published by Reuters, Best Buy is offering a Samsung 46-inch 1080p LCD for a $900 discount, at $1,599.99.

Walmart is offering several top TV brands at deeply discounted prices, including a $300 discount on a Sony Bravia 46-inch 1080p LCD TV (at $778) and a $200 price drop on a Vizio 55-inch 1080p LCD TV (at $1,298.)

Sears is offering a 5 percent discount on all TVs over $499.

Wholesale Furniture Brokers is advertising more than 30 assorted recliners and video game chairs that feature NFL and college football team logos and colors. According to the company's marketing manager, Matt Holmes, the online retailer experienced a 187% increase in recliner sales in February of this year,  compared to the same month last year after it launched a Super Bowl Sale.

On the food front, industry publications report retailers have been making large gains in the fresh food departments with prepared deli party trays, bakery items, cakes, cookies, appetizers, dips and salty snacks.

The National Chicken Council in Washington, DC reports more than 450 chicken wings totaling 90 million pounds have been produced nationally for sale to restaurants, hotels and private parties.

At Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, the city's annual Wing Bowl is expected to draw 20,000 spectators to the amateur eating contest.

"Super Bowl parties are getting bigger and better each year," notes Randy Orton, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Meyer Natural Angus of Loveland, CO.

Peyton Manning, Colts QB

Frito-Lay has made an additional 10 million pounds of potato and tortilla chips for national distribution to its retailers.

In Terre Haute, IN, Baesler's Market has baked cakes featuring Indianapolis Colts' Peyton Manning's "edible image", along with Colts' bread bears.

According to the Washington, DC-based Retail Advertising and Marketing Association,  consumers during Super Bowl weekend are expected to spend an average $57.27 on food, merchandise, team apparel and furniture - less than the average $59.90 last year.

In total, U.S. shoppers and consumers will spend an estimated $9.6 billion for this event. 

Sun Life Stadium

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