This coming Sunday, Feb. 7, the eyes of more than 111 million people in the United States, and millions more around the world, will be watching the 50th Super Bowl game in Palo Alto. Last year’s game was the highest rated TV program in American history!
Indeed, Super Bowl Sunday has become somewhat of an unofficial holiday with parties, BBQ’s, and gathering of friends taking place from coast to coast. So big has the Super Bowl become that a 30 second TV commercial during the game cost advertisers over 4 million dollars. That’s $133,333 per second!
The Super Bowl has come a long way since the first game in 1967. It was played in front of about 61,000 people at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with about 50 million watching on TV. Back in 1967, Forest Lawn comprised of only four locations: Glendale, Hollywood Hills, Cypress and Covina Hills. There was no Mausoleum of Christian Heritage in Covina, no Forest Lawn-Long Beach, and no Forest Lawn in the Coachella Valley.
Also in 1967, Los Angeles had an NFL football team, the Rams. Their home field was the LA Coliseum. In 1980, they began playing their home games at Anaheim Stadium, and in 1995 they left Southern California altogether. The Rams—an LA institution like the Dodgers, Forest Lawn, and the Hollywood Bowl—were gone. For the next 20 years, the second largest city in the nation would not have an NFL team.
Well, at long last football fans in LA can start high-fiving each other as the Rams have announced that they will return to the Coliseum for the 2016 season. Plans are underway for a new stadium to open in Inglewood around 2019. In fact, LA may even end up with two teams as both the Chargers and the Raiders are also contemplating a move to LA.
After two decades of not having a team, we celebrate this year’s Super Bowl by welcoming home the Los Angeles Rams. Even though they’re not playing in the big game this year, it is sure to be a fun one to watch.
So, may we ask…who are you rooting for: the Carolina Panthers or Denver Broncos? Leave your predictions of the winning team and the score. (The person who guesses correctly will win a prize.)