The list, which is based on sales on NFLShop.com from April 1st to December 31st, has the Packers QB on top, with Broncos QB Tim Tebow and Steelers S Troy Polamalu rounding out the top 3.

Further proving that the NFL is a quarterback league, 7 of the top 10 positions are held by NFL quarterbacks. Carolina Panthers QB, Cam Newton, was the only rookie to make the list — at #25.

RK	PLAYER	RK	PLAYER
1)	Packers QB Aaron Rodgers	14)	Bears LB Brian Urlacher
2)	Broncos QB Tim Tebow	15)	Ravens LB Ray Lewis
3)	Steelers S Troy Polamalu	16)	Jets QB Mark Sanchez
4)	Saints QB Drew Brees	17)	Colts QB Peyton Manning
5)	Patriots QB Tom Brady	18)	Raiders RB Darren McFadden
6)	Packers LB Clay Matthews	19)	Lions DT Ndamukong Suh
7)	Eagles QB Michael Vick	20)	Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger
	Giants QB Eli Manning	21)	Eagles WR DeSean Jackson
9)	Cowboys QB Tony Romo	22)	Jets CB Darrelle Revis
10)	Cowboys WR Miles Austin	23)	Patriots WR Wes Welker
11)	49ers LB Patrick Willis	24)	Vikings RB Adrian Peterson
12)	Cowboys WR Dez Bryant	25)	Panthers QB Cam Newton
13)	Cowboys TE Jason Witten

The game, the highlight of the Lingerie Football League season, is moving from Super Bowl 46 host city Indianapolis to Las Vegas.

The game, which will be broadcast during the halftime of the Super Bowl on February 5th, will be played in the Orleans Arena and broadcast live on the MTV Networks’ MTV channel.

The Orleans Hotel & Casino has been named as the official host hotel of the event.

“We’re thrilled to host Lingerie Bowl IX,” said Tony Taeubel, Vice President and General Manager of The Orleans. “By securing the host rights to the 2012 Lingerie Bowl, we believe we have created a truly unique destination event for the thousands of football fans coming to Las Vegas for the Big Game.” (via Press Release)

Tickets for the game, which went on sale last week, range from $15.00 – $82.00. Similar to the NFL’s Super Bowl festivities, the Orleans Arena will host the “Lingerie Football Tailgate Village” complete with live music, football challenges, video game lounges and more.

The Lingerie Bowl, which began in 2004 as an atypical brand of entertainment during the halftime of the Super Bowl, has seen decent growth since it’s inception, increasing in both brand loyalty and advertisers. The Lingerie Football League, an offshoot of the Lingerie Bowl, began play in 2009.

While last night’s 49ers-Steelers Monday Night Football matchup was marred by two power outages totaling 46 minutes, the 49ers had already taken steps to ensure the team’s planned move to Santa Clara would go over without a hitch.

According to the San Francisco Business Times, the Niners sold a stake in the club to an unnamed Silicon Valley investor to help fund the team’s planned move — and new stadium — in Santa Clara.

The 49ers are looking to cover nearly $150 million of the Santa Clara stadium’s $1 billion dollar price tag — the team had previously secured $850 million in loans.

Should everything go as planned, the 49ers should be playing in their new stadium in 2015.

The Orange Bowl committee announced a new sponsorship agreement Camacho Cigars. Under the three-year agreement, Camacho Cigars will become a corporate sponsor of the Orange Bowl Festival, including the 2012, ’13, and ’14 Orange Bowl, and the 2013 Discover BCS National Championship.

“Being that our roots stem from South Florida, it’s a great honor to be partnered with such a class organization that does so much for the community,” said Dylan Austin, Head of Marketing at Camacho Cigars. (via Press Release)

The sponsorship will include presence at various game day events throughout the three bowl games, with special cigar concession lounges being created for football-VIP’s and Committee members. The Orange Bowl’s Game Day Fan Zone, one of the bowl’s pre-game events, will also feature a Camacho Cigar-branded lounge area.

“We pride ourselves in affiliating with quality brands, especially those with strong South Florida ties, like Camacho Cigars,” said Michael Saks, Chief Operating Officer of the Orange Bowl.

Camacho Cigars, which was founded in 1961, is a significant player in the international cigar market, with the #1 premium selling cigar in America, the Baccarat the Game.

The team has decided to forgo any postseason games, hoping that their self-imposed ban — deemed a ‘necessary’ response to the NCAA’s ongoing investigation into the university’s compliance practices — can help mitigate further penalties from the NCAA at the conclusion of their investigation.

“I’m clearly disappointed,” said Miami coach Al Golden, who university officials said was not involved in the choice to go forward with the ban. “I believe it’s the right decision and I’m 100 percent behind the decision. … We’re one step closer to putting these issues behind us.” (via ESPN)

The self-imposed ban is based on a Yahoo! Sports report containing allegations made by Nevin Shapiro — a former Miami University booster who is currently serving 20-years in prison for a ponzi scheme — allegations that over 70 Miami football players took illegal benefits from 2002 through 2010.

The NCAA sanctioned 12 current players at the beginning of the college football season based on Shapiro’s allegations.

While the University has no plans for any other self-imposed penalties, they may still receive a bowl payout from the ACC, as the conference pools all revenue from postseason games and distributes those monies to the 12 ACC teams regardless of whether or not they participate in the bowl season.

Miami made itself bowl eligible with its 6th win of the season this past Saturday, a 6-3 victory over South Florida.

The Sports Fan Coalition filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission last week, asking the agency to lift its sports blackout rule.  The rule, which allows sports teams to blackout local broadcasts if the game isn’t sold out 72-hours before game time, was adopted in 1975.

“It is absurd that the government still props up the sports leagues with an outdated and unnecessary rule written four decades ago,” Sports Fans Coalition Executive Director Brian Frederick said. “The FCC’s blackout rule simply helps to perpetuate the anti-consumer practice of withholding sporting events from fans who cannot afford tickets to games, even when those fans helped to subsidize sports through public funding, laws, and regulations.” (via The Hill)

Opponents of the blackout rule have long argued that a blackout doesn’t actually perpetuate an increase in fans at the stadium and many other factors — monetary, poor team play, television and the continuing increase in technology — play a much larger role.  The NFL, on the other hand, views the rule as successfully encouraging fans to attend games,

“The policy has been successful in striking a balance between encouraging fans to attend games and allowing the games to continue to be broadcast on free television,” said Dan Masonson, an NFL spokesman. “The NFL is the only sports league that broadcasts all of its regular-season and playoff games on free television.”

For the sake of argument, the blackout rule doesn’t come into play too often, and typically only in certain markets.  The NFL blacked out 23 of its 256 games last year.

Recently, the NFL has also made other concessions regarding blackouts, such as allowing highlights of blacked-out games to still be shown on its Red Zone channel, and making blackout games available online the Monday after the game.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Josh Freeman was officially announced as the newest endorser of the Jordan brand early Sunday.

At a time when the NBA is locked out and theTeam Jordan is unable to completely capitalize on the endorsing power of their NBA stars like Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade, Josh Freeman joins Team Jordan’s growing stable of NFL players, including Andre Johnson, Michael Crabtree, Dwight Freeney, Charles Woodson, and LaMarr Woodley.

The official release from Team Jordan is below,

We’re bringing in another rising star to Team Jordan with the addition of Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Freeman. At only 23, Josh has already started 33 games, connected on 42 touchdowns and thrown for over 7,000 yards. With each game his skills become more refined. At 6’6”, Josh has the size to survey the field, but is also an agile playmaker whose versatile style presents a serious challenge to the opposing D. This year he’s led Tampa Bay to a 4-3 record as they battle for the top spot in the NFC South division.

Needless to say, the future is bright for this young gun. Welcome to the Team Jordan fam, Josh. (via Nike)

Expect to see some sort of Buccaneers inspired Team Jordan garb in the upcoming weeks.

(image via Team Jordan)

(h/t to @tariq_ahmad)

The NFL has announced that the Phoenix area, specifically Glendale, Arizona, will host the 49th Super Bowl in 2015. It will be the third time the Phoenix area has hosted the NFL’s championship game.

The Phoenix group beat out its only other competitor — Tampa, Florida. The 49th Super Bowl will follow the NFL’s intriguing 48th Super Bowl location — the New York/New Jersey area. That game will be the first ever Super Bowl played outdoors in a cold weather climate.

Early estimates by Arizona Cardinals team president Michael Bidwill put the estimated economic impact of hosting the 2015 Super Bowl at upwards of $500 million dollars for the Phoenix area, according to ESPN sources.

In other NFL news, NFL owners approved a resolution on Tuesday to continue regular season games in the United Kingdom through the 2016 season. Furthermore, the league also opened up the possibility of multiple games overseas, and changing venues and competing teams.

“The response to NFL games being played in the U.K. continues to be exceptional,” said NFL Commissioner ROGER GOODELL. “Because of the outstanding support of our British fans, we are confident that hosting additional games in the U.K. will be well received and support our goal of bringing football to more fans in the U.K. and beyond.”

“When the initial resolution was approved in 2006, the thinking at the time was that we would have two new teams every year,” said NFL Vice President of International CHRIS PARSONS. “As the series evolved, we felt as though having a team return to the U.K. on a regular basis would certainly increase the fan base for that particular team, which in turn would drive fan growth for the entire league. We think there is a tremendous benefit for a team to return to the U.K. on an annual basis.” (via Press Release)

According to NFL sources, the playing of regular season games has helped to increase NFL fan interest in the U.K., with the NFL currently touting an estimated fan base of 11 million — a 32% increase over the past two years. NFL television ratings in the UK have also significantly increased, with Sunday viewership and Super Bowl viewership increasing 91 and 74 percent, respectively, since 2006.

This season’s game pits the Chicago Bears against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on October 23rd. It will be the fifth NFL regular season game hosted in the U.K.’s Wembley Stadium, the first being a Giants victory over the Dolphins in 2007.

Jackson has signed with Rawlings Sporting Goods to endorse Rawlings’ NRG Quantum football helmets. As part of Jackson’s endorsement deal, he will wear the Quantum helmets during this upcoming season, and appear in Rawlings’ print, digital and video marketing materials. Jackson joins two other running backs, Ronnie Brown and Frank Gore, as endorsers, on Rawlings’ “Football Advisory Staff”.

“I really like the fit and feel of the helmet, and I feel protected and secure when I wear it,” Jackson said. “I’m looking forward to being the face of Rawlings and their Quantum football helmet and increasing their presence in the NFL.” (via Rawlings)

Amidst many concerns over head injuries, CTE, concussions and the like, Rawlings is of course touting the new safety features of the NRG helmet. They include,

• Rawlings AIA™ – Active Impact Absorption™ has dual air bags with a scientifically-designed spacer material allowing for instant and long-lasting protection, unlike standard conventional foams.
• Rawlings C3™ – Custom Comfort Cushion™ allows players to customize their helmets’ fit. The proprietary rate-dependent passive impact absorption cushioning provides maximum protection without sacrificing comfort.
• The Rawlings Heat Exchange™ has strategically placed vents and padding systems that create optimized air flow and temperature control.

As for how Jackson was chosen as an endorser for the Rawlings’ brand? Look no further than his hard hitting playing style,

“We’re excited to add Steven to our Football Advisory Staff as we continue our commitment to develop helmets that meet the protective needs of today’s athletes at all levels,” said Mike Thompson, Senior Vice President of Marketing for St. Louis-based Rawlings. “Watching Steven locally, we appreciate his hard-hitting, physical playing style and are excited to see him lead the evolution of the Rawlings Football brand. We recognize the factors of style, comfort and technology that Steven looks for in a helmet and the NRG Quantum meets his high-level demands.”

For more information on the NRG helmet, and to look for Jackson in Rawlings’ campaigns on Rawlings website, and their Facebook page.

Its a hard knock life, for fans of HBO’s Emmy award winning show, Hard Knocks.

According to this tweet by SI’s Peter King on Saturday, HBO will not produce the seventh season of the four-time Sports Emmy award winning show, due to uncertainty about the start of the NFL season.

The show, which chronicles the preseason preparation and antics of an NFL football team, first aired in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens. Last year, Rex Ryan and the New York Jets were featured, to much critical and fan acclaim.

In happier lockout news, for players, owners, and NFL enthusiasts alike ESPN and other outlets are reporting that the NFLPA (once it is reconstituted) will approve the collective bargaining agreement proposal that was ratified by the owners last week.

So, while Hard Knocks does not appear to be in anyone’s immediate future, live NFL football seems to be right around the corner.

But that is exactly what is being predicted by a Dallas-based pizza chain you may have heard of…Pizza Hut.

[quotes]Pizza Hut teams across the country are also gearing up for the big day, as Americans are expected to place more than 1.3 million orders with the Dallas-based chain. The projected spike represents an approximate 60 percent increase in business over a typical Sunday, making it Pizza Hut’s busiest day of the year.

The No. 1 Big Game order from Pizza Hut will be pizza, to the tune of 2 million pizzas! To put into perspective the amount of Pizza Hut pizza America will be enjoying for the Big Game, Pizza Hut’s research team crunched some numbers.

• 2.3 Million: Feet of Pizza Hut pizza to be sold on the big day – enough to reach the summit of Mount Everest 80 times.
• 1,200: Tons of dough that will be used to make Pizza Hut pizza for Big Game orders – twice the weight of the jumbo video screen inside Cowboys Stadium, site of this year’s game.
• 90,000: Gallons of marinara sauce that will be spread across Pizza Hut pizzas on game day – enough to fill more than 5,000 beer kegs.
• 270,000: Number of Big Dipper pizzas expected to sell on Pizza Hut’s busiest day. If all of the Big Dipper strips were laid end to end they would stretch nearly 500 miles – long enough to cover the distance between Green Bay and Pittsburgh. (via Press Release)

[/quotes]

If 2 million pizzas still sounds like an aggressive estimate, one has to remember that Pizza Hut should receive a boost from their Super Bowl XLV ad which will air during the first half of the game.

Pizza Hut is even letting pizza lovers get an early start on their pizza orders; they’ll start accepting online pizza orders on January 30th, and customers always have the option to order pizza via text message, Facebook, and iPhone app.

And what of Papa John’s, the official pizza of the NFL, and official pizza of the Super Bowl?  They’re taking advantage of Super Sunday with two special offers: Free pizza if the game goes into overtime, and a chance to win a free pizza every 45 seconds for online orders.

Pizza lovers rejoice.

With each season that passes touting another BCS National Champion, while an equally-deserving team can only watch, the BCS creates “a tradition unlike any other.” And it’s not the Rose Bowl. The BCS and its executives are creating an annual tradition of  mythical “What If” scenarios and increasing condemnation towards their system. It’s a system that uses a combination of imprecise, perplexing, and largely obscure mathematical formulas along with a poll comprised of coach’s votes (the same coaches that happen to have a game the same day and often pass the responsibility to the Sports Information Directors) that routinely distorts the national championship picture, rather than yielding a clear-cut champion.

What do you tell Coach Gary Patterson and the TCU players, who only nine days prior upped their record to 13-0 against a Wisconsin team that came into the Rose Bowl having outscored their opponents 235-84 over the last four games of the season? According to Hancock, “You had a great season.” Appropriately, an unsatisfying response from a man who starves college football fans year in and year out.

The usual objections to the BCS don’t faze Hancock. From complaints that bowl games are essentially exhibition games, to the disdain for the thirty-six days between the last regular season game and the National Championship (had Wisconsin or another Big Ten team made it, the layoff would have been forty-three days), to this season’s popular discussion regarding the disadvantages of schools like TCU and Boise St., Hancock has an automated response to counter these widespread, subjective claims.

Instead, the surest way to test Hancock lies in shining a detrimental light based on concrete evidence that exposes the ”Bigotry, Corruption, and Scandal” altering the judgement of the egocentric faction operating the system and, ultimately, compelling them to hinder the current state of college football.

There are undoubtedly countless factual arguments casting a cloud over college football, but the four that follow are either the most alarming and/or are directly influenced by the BCS’s existence. The first two reveal how the men in charge tolerate the constant clamor for change, and the last two illustrate the BCS’s constraint on the popularity of college football:

The Rich Get Richer

College football may be an NCAA-sanctioned, amateur sport, but just like professional sports, it all boils down to money. Incorporating money is often a pre-cursor to a reduction in moral and ethical decision-making (i.e. Cam and Cecil Newton, Reggie Bush, etc.). Implausible rationale often associates itself with any pursuit of money. In this particular case, the amounts of money earned by bowl directors for hosting one game a year lasting no more than four hours explains their disdain towards a playoff.

According to Death to the BCS, a book that presents the most condemning case to date against the BCS, the majority of bowls are tax-exempt, non-profits. In the book, Dan Wetzel reports that, based on federal tax records, nearly two dozen bowl directors earned over $300,000 dollars in 2007. To put these figures in perspective, a compensation survey from the NonProfit Timesshows that on average nonprofits with budgets in line with the Fiesta and Sugar Bowls, pay their CEO’s $185,270. Needless to say, these are nonprofits founded on altruistic missions.

Bowl directors scrambling for valid reasoning to justify their outrageous salaries typically mention the economic impact of their respective games. While no one disputes the economic activity generated by the games, a person who has worked firsthand with bowl executives told Time, “Lower salaries wouldn’t change the economic impact one iota. The idea that it would is laughable.”

Also mentioned in Death to the BCS is the potential financial impact of a playoff. In 2005, TV execs and unidentified college officials estimated that a 16-team playoff would generate around $750 million annually, dwarfing the $220 million the current system generates. In light of the economy forcing athletic departments to cut budgets and even drop some sports altogether, common sense indicates that no matter how the money is divided, the universities and athletic departments stand to benefit from the $530 million projected increase in revenue.

Unfortunately, these bowl directors precisely demonstrate the principle of implausible rationale accompanying the pursuit of money. How could a proposal mutually beneficial to the universities, teams, and fans alike struggle for traction, while the system in place is characterized by obscure formulas, ambiguous champions, and contracting budgets? The answer is simple and concerning: The bowl directors have let their unparalleled salaries cloud their judgement.

Looking After “The Least of These”

Bearing in mind the money/rationale principle and the bowls’ statuses as tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations, UConn’s trip to the Fiesta bowl this season (the school’s first ever trip to a BCS Bowl after making the leap to the FBS level) revealed another flaw with the current BCS format. After the program-defining win, Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway explained its significance,” It’s all a catalyst to make the University of Connecticut better and continue striving for excellence in all we do at UConn.”

Ironically, the program’s first trip to a BCS Game actually served as a catalyst for incurring substantial amounts of debt. The Fiesta Bowl, and all other bowls for that matter, put the onus on the participating school to sell its ticket allotment (17,500 in UConn’s case for a total cost of $3.5 million), purchase tickets for band members and cheerleaders, purchase a predetermined amount of hotel rooms, and cover all travel and food expenses.

As of December 30, two days before the game, UConn had only sold 4,500 tickets and resorted to soliciting donations from people with no intention of attending the game.They became victims of the secondary ticket market, including sites such as StubHub. While the school was trying to sell its allotment ranging from $111-$255, the same tickets could be found online for as little as $18.

Sadly, this is a recurring issue among bowl-bound teams. After participating in bowl games, the schools reluctantly turn to student fees, academic funds, and taxpayer support, among other things in an effort to balance the Athletic Department’s books.

In 2009, after failing to make a bowl game in consecutive years, Michigan AD Bill Martin said, “The fact that we didn’t go to a bowl game the last two years means we actually made money.”

Yet again, money trumps logical solutions, and bowl appearances shift from a program-defining event to a long list of financial burdens diluting the experience as a whole. Athletic Directors, beware of the BCS Paradox: Losing=Winning. An imperfection emanating from an imperfect system.

Bowls Were Half-Empty or Half-Full?

DISCLAIMER: The following assessment assumes accuracy in the reporting of attendance numbers. Based on videos from the games, several bowls appeared to exaggerate their numbers. The Orange Bowl, for example, reported an attendance of 65,453, which makes up 87% of Sun Life Stadium. The ESPN cameramen deserve credit for keeping camera angles below the upper bowl, because glimpses of the upper section visually refute 87%.

What college football, the BCS, and the Football Bowl Association all attempted to spin as a positive is actually cause for concern. Shortly after Auburn’s victory concluded another bowl season, it was announced that attendance across all bowl games increased by a total of .08% this year. Proponents of the BCS were quick to portray this statistic in a positive light. What they fail to mention is the most recent bowl season added a bowl game. Thus, even with five virtual “home games” on the slate, each of which saw attendance increase by at least 11,000 (Military Bowl-Maryland, Poinsettia Bowl-SDSU, Music City Bowl-Tennessee, Hawaii Bowl-Hawaii, and Outback Bowl-Florida), average attendance still decreased .6%

Surprisingly, very few bowl games actually sell out. The solution? As mentioned above, bowls force schools to purchase an allotment of tickets, transferring the liability from the bowl to the school. In reality, whether you choose to examine the .08% increase or the .6% decrease, they both highlight the same issue facing college football: popularity has stalled (further illustrated in the next point).

Sure, Mr. Hancock, the attendance numbers under the current system maintained their pace. But they didn’t increase, and underneath the conspiracy that is the current system, lies a playoff format packed with a large amount of untapped potential. Add to an underwhelming slate of bowl games a few rounds of do-or-die football, and attendance numbers will blossom.

Good Is The Enemy of Great: TV Ratings

In Jim Collins’s book, Good to Great, he astutely states that: “Good is the enemy of great.” Herein lies the problem for college football TV ratings. There’s no denying that week in and week out, the ratings are consistently adequate. However, as with bowl attendance, TV ratings are also mired in the current system of mediocrity and left to wonder: “What would a playoff do for ratings?”

Let’s look at a two-week span of games at the end of the regular season involving the Oklahoma Sooners to demonstrate the residual benefits a playoff format would reap on regular season TV viewership:

Saturday November 27, 2010, Oklahoma traveled to Stillwater for its annual Bedlam game against Oklahoma State, the winner earning the right to play in the Big 12 Championship. Oklahoma suffered two losses earlier in the season, while Oklahoma State had fallen only once.

Now, envision the moment sane and rational college football fans have been yearning for: a 16-team playoff format has been instituted. Conference champions are guaranteed a spot in the playoff, with at-large bids the focus of the remaining teams. All of the sudden, this Bedlam game carries huge implications for the upcoming playoff: the winner of this fierce rivalry will advance to the Big 12 Conference Championship, where the winner will receive an automatic playoff birth and home-field advantage. To add even more intrigue, this game is a virtual must-win for Oklahoma, whose chances to make the playoffs as an at-large dwindle to almost zero with three losses.

Under the current system, the results would only determine who plays in the Big 12 Conference Championship game, where the winner earns the right to travel to Glendale and play a meaningless exhibition game they call the Fiesta Bowl.

Had a playoff birth been on the line during the game, “Bedlam” would only accurately describe the former BCS system; instead, this storied rivarly game would demand words like “momentus”, “purposeful”, and “salient.”

To the defendants of the BCS and supporters of the current format who obliviously claim that a playoff would diminish the value of the regular season, I ask you not only to re-read the previous example, but also glance (not “closely examine”, but “glance” because the disparity is painfully obvious) at the current state of the NFL, who wisely implemented a playoff format from its inception.

The NFL participates in a 16-game regular season immediately followed by a playoff. Google “NFL TV ratings”, and countless articles highlight the record-shattering year for TV ratings in the NFL. Meanwhile, in an era where HDTV’s are as common as computers in households across the country, each TV network that carries college football (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, CBS, and Versus) suffered a decline in viewership with the exception of Versus, whose numbers were bolstered by the intrigue of Oregon’s high-octane offense and it’s near-loss at Cal.

Whether considered a testament to the NFL or a distress call to college football, the NFL Wild-Card game between the Saints and the Seahawks (played at 4:30 ET on a Saturday, which is a similar time slot to CBS’s SEC Game of the Week) produced an 18.3 rating. Compare that single NFL number with the highest-rated college football game this season, the epic comeback by Auburn to beat Alabama and continue its quest for a championship, which produced a 7.3 rating.

As he neared the end of his statement, exhausting all of his debatable excuses for the current format, Hancock said, “At its heart, the BCS is a group of schools collaboratively doing what is in the best interests of their students. And for the game.” With this misleading and deceptive statement, it becomes painstakingly obvious that the pursuit of money reigns supreme and the implausible rationale that follows has trickled down from the leader and infiltrated the whole system.

Pittsburgh areas hotels, restaurants, retailers, and bars.

Pittsburgh’s tourism board, Visit Pittsburgh, is estimating that last week’s game and this week’s AFC Championship game will bring in roughly $45M to the economy in Western Pennsylvania.  Needless to say, Pittsburgh business owners are excited,

[quotes]Merrill Stabile, president of Alco Parking Corp., which owns North Shore lots around Heinz Field and PNC Park, said the three extra games translate into money Alco and the city normally wouldn’t have. Stabile said the company controls about 8,000 parking spaces around Heinz Field.

“The parking tax alone is going to be in the range of $100,000,” Stabile said. “It’s a shot in the arm for everyone here on the North Side, as well as Downtown. We’re jumping for joy.”

[/quotes]

And hotels?  They’re doing well, as well,

[quotes]People are booking hotel rooms at premium prices. Downtown rates range from $278 to $419 per night, according to hotel websites.

Robert Lepore, general manager of the 715-room Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh, formerly the Hilton, said he expects the hotel to fill before the weekend.

“The reservation lines are certainly lit up,” he said. “We do expect, really, you’ll see a tremendous amount of business. We expect the rooms to go very fast. I think this will be a big boost for the city.” (via Tribune Review)

[/quotes]

Overall, its been a great January for the city of Pittsburgh, which also brought in an estimated $15 million from the NHL’s Winter Classic, which took place on New Years Day.

Although its not completely a fair comparison, due to number of games and the finality of each football game, its interesting to note that Arlington saw roughly $8 million come into the city during the Rangers six home playoff sellouts during the 2010 MLB playoffs.

Of course, both of those events are dwarfed by the WWE’s yearly WrestleMania event.  The event has averaged more than 45M of economic impact over the last three years.  This is due in large part to WrestleMania being a non-localized event, giving it the ability to pull in attendees from across the nation.

[format]63% of fans that attended last year’s WrestleMania in Phoenix, were from outside the metropolitan area, with 53% staying three nights or more.[/format]

Don’t feel too bad for the NFL though.  Although WrestleMania may dwarf two home playoff games in economic impact, last year’s Super Bowl brought in more than $230M for the Miami economy.

The city, which formerly was the home of the AFL’s Kansas City Brigade, was left without a team when the Arena Football League reorganized at the end of the 2009 season.  When the AFL came back for the first time, in 2010, Kansas City was left without a team.

But no longer.

Not only is Kansas City back in the AFL, they now officially have a team name:  The Kansas City Command.

“So many good ideas and concepts, but in the end a combined team from Sprint (Center) and us kept coming back to The Command,” General Manager Kevin Porter said. “This is a military and Air Force term for an area of responsibility in a unit or installation and shows the control we will have as a team.”

The team will continue to play in the Sprint Center; the 18,000 seat facility that opened in Kansas City in 2007.  The team will continue under the ownership of Kansas City native, Chris Likens, who has owned the team since its inception in 2006.

“The return of arena football presents a unique opportunity to give back to citizens throughout the region—both in the form of entertainment as well as in community and charitable endeavors,” said Chris Likens. “I always believed that Arena Football would return to Kansas City – we were simply awaiting the right opportunity and circumstance. The optimal opportunity has presented itself and, as a lifelong Kansas Citian, I’m proud to be a part of a legacy of generosity as evidenced throughout this community.”

The Kansas City’s command new season starts in March (just in time for an NFL lockout!).  Their schedule is yet to be released.

info from the Kansas City Business Journal

Proving that America (most of it) can always fall in love with a redemption story, Michael Vick jerseys are apparently selling like hot cakes.  This all comes only three years after the NFL literally suspended the sale of Vick’s Atlanta Falcons jersey.

Sources tell CNBC that retailers in the Philadelphia area have placed big orders for Vick’s jersey since he was named the starter by Eagles coach Andy Reid this week.

“Certainly after coach Reid declared him the starter and offered his vote of confidence, demand and sales escalated and we did bring in more (jerseys) to meet customer needs,” said Jed Berger, senior vice president of marketing forModell’s Sporting Goods, which brought Eagles No. 7 jerseys into its stores in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.

Even after Vick was picked up by the Philadelphia Eagles in August of last year, Dick’s Sporting Goods didn’t stock its shelves with Vick jerseys. It wasn’t a political statement. It was merely due to the fact that it was believed that Vick’s jersey wouldn’t sell well.

On Monday morning, however, two Dick’s Sporting Goods stores in the Philadelphia area were promising customers that Vick jerseys would be in by the end of the week.

Vick’s Eagles jersey was in the top 20 best selling jerseys at the end of last season, but demand was weak in the offseason, as Donovan McNabb left to go to the Washington Redskins and Kevin Kolb was named the starter. (via CNBC)

Vick currently has a QB rating of 110.2, the third highest rating in the league, after three weeks of play.  He was officially named the Eagles starter last week, replacing Kevin Kolb, who was injured in week 1.   Vick’s return to prominence sounds very much like the rise-fall-rise of L.A. Lakers guard Kobe Bryant.  Bryant was famously accused of rape in a Vail, Colorado hotel room in 2003-04, which subsequently led to a loss of numerous endorsements and a major hit to Kobe’s public persona.

At the end of this past NBA season, Bryant had the highest selling jersey for the second consecutive year, and was actually the second highest paid athlete in the world in 2009.  Now, I don’t think I’m willing to step out on a limb and claim Vick will be #1 in jersey sales at seasons end, but, if Vick already managed to be on the top 25 jersey list last year, as a backup, who knows what this season holds, as a starter who is currently looking dominant.