The Super Bowl has long provided an advertising platform for those willing to dig deep into their pockets and with the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs gearing up for the 54th edition this weekend, the massive event is starting to attract more attention across the Atlantic.
Aside from being one of the biggest sporting and entertainment fixtures on the US calendar, the Super Bowl is a magnet for wealthy corporations looking to get a slice of prime time actions with a 30-second advertising slot. This year broadcaster Fox and the NFL have had to add two additional minutes of commercial break to keep up with demand.
This year, each 30-second slot costs a record $5.6 million, according to analysis firm Nielsen.
Politicians have begun to seize the chance to broadcast their own messages too, as the nation''s eyes settle on the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Sunday. President Donald Trump and Democrat Michael Bloomberg have both bought 60 seconds each.
The attractive thing for the millionaires who can afford a slot in the Super Bowl commercial break is that around 100 million viewers in the US alone.
Globally the audience can exceed 150 million. Adding a humble — but growing — number to that subtotal is Spain, with roughly 250,000 tuning into the event last year.
The growing interested in American football in Spain was evident in a survey done by ticket sales site StubHub that found that 83 percent of 400 respondents were willing to spend between 3,000-5,000 euros to see the event first hand.
The interest in the Super Bowl lies not just with sports but with the half-time show, which this year will feature Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. According to the same survey, 49 percent of respondents would go only to see these performers.
Unable to go all the way to Miami to see the sporting spectacle, several small American football teams in Spain are putting on their own Super Bowl events, such as the Hospitalet Pioneers, which is expecting a crowd of roughly 300 people at the American bar Belushi''s, in central Barcelona.
"We set up a very American-style event, with spicy food, beer pong and the Super Bowl," the Pioneers coach, Bart Iaccarino, said.
While he regretted that the media attention in Spain only fell on the grand finale of the NFL, rather than the competition in the sport in Spain itself, he believes it is growing in popularity.
There are similar events held in the Spanish capital, Madrid, where The Royal Oaks Knights of Alcobendas are screening it live at a shopping center north of the city.
Members of what was the first American football club in Spain, expect hundreds to turn up.
"A lot of people are not habitual followers of this sport, but they do watch the Super Bowl. There are many things they don''t understand about the game or how it''s refereed. Watching the game with the team, they can learn a lot," Pedro Gómez, from the Royal Oaks, told Efe.
AJ