Recession hits the party scene, too
Posted: Sunday, February 01, 2009 10:15 AM
TAMPA - It was Saturday evening, the toughest night to get a table at a good restaurant. And Donatello’s in Tampa is as good an Italian restaurant as you’ll find in any city in America; so good, a friend told me, “It’s worth spending your own money to eat there.”
But around 7 p.m. on the night before the Super Bowl, three guys walked in without reservations and were seated immediately.
If you wanted evidence that the Super Bowl is getting hammered by the recession, that was it. “Come on in. Have a seat. Would you like something to drink before dinner?”
Donatello’s would fill up within the next hour, with valets busy moving around Escalades and other luxury cars and clearing room for limos packed with partiers and celebrities, including Mike Ditka. But in normal economic times, those early tables would not have been open, not in a Super Bowl town on the night before the big game.
You could see such effects of the recession everywhere. The latest reports show that ticket prices are dropping rapidly as cash-strapped fans balk at the prices they used to pay on the secondary market without blinking an eye.
The Commissioner’s Party, thrown on Friday night by the NFL, was drastically scaled back. Instead of hosting it off-site, the NFL held it in the Tampa Convention Center. Normally, multiple bands play in different rooms. This year, there was one band and a mostly empty dance floor. The food was good, but there was less variety than in past years.
At least the NFL, which has announced layoff s in the league office, held a party. Playboy and Sports Illustrated, which normally throw the hottest parties in town, canceled their affairs long ago. Even the Maxim Party – a hot ticket this week – was half the size of last year’s.
Even charity took a beating. The NFL Charities Golf Classic has been raising money for charities for 23 years under the direction of Nick Nicolosi. The attraction is playing golf with either a Hall of Famer or another player – sometimes active stars and sometimes recently retired players. The price is a hefty $1,500 per player. Even at those prices, in past years enough people entered to fill as many as four golf courses with six-man scramble teams. The money went to a good cause, you got to spend five hours on the course with men such as Jim Taylor, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Harry Carson, Leroy Kelly, Don Maynard, Y.A. Tittle, Ted Hendricks, Ronnie Lott and dozens more. Afterward, there was a good feed, plenty of prizes and a chance to bid on premier items of memorabilia at auction.
This year, the outing was not even half as big as last year’s. Just two courses at Innisbrook, a huge golf resort, were needed, and teams were down to five golfers from the usual six.
“Guys kept telling me, ‘I can’t be seen anywhere near the Super Bowl,’ ” one of the organizers said. These were corporate types – bankers and investors and other Wall Street types. There’s a lot of heat on them, and they’re the ones who aren’t here.
It was tough putting on an outing at all, but those who came were rewarded with a post-match visit by Condoleezza Rice, who stayed for more than half an hour chatting easily with the attendees.
Nicolosi auctioned off a Steelers helmet signed this week by everyone on the team for $2,500, but no one was willing to bid even $1,500 for an autographed Cardinals helmet. An all-inclusive luxury trip to next year’s Super Bowl went for $13,000, but a guitar signed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band went for just $1,500. No one wanted to bid on an autographed picture of Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic Torch in Atlanta that was encased in glass along with a torch from the games. And the $12,000 asking price for a picture of the early Beatles autographed by John, Paul, George and Ringo went unmet.
The smaller turnout will be felt in the charity’s work. But Nicolosi was upbeat: “This, too, will pass,” he said.
Nicolosi did sell out a Hall of Fame bowling tournament earlier in the week. At $300 a ticket, it was a more affordable way for fans to spend quality competitive time with an all-time great. Somehow, bowling doesn’t seem extravagant, even in tough times.
One of the parties that lived up to expectations, radio host and golf producer Ann Liguori tells me, was the Super Bowl Sponsor’s Party held in Orlando. “Amazing - all sponsor and agency people. Heart and Pat Benitar performed -- loved both! Food stations by Ruth’s Chris - one of the best SB parties I've been to!” Ann reported.
