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Bowl may be foreign, but it’s still Super to us

Islanders have embraced Seahawks on cusp on second NFL championship
VKA Seahawks 0370.jpg
Tim Carlstom cheers his team as the Seattle Seahawks' "12th man" f;at was raised in the Inner Harbour on Thursday.

The tentacles of the sports industry reach everywhere and run deep. Depending on the source, and what is being measured, it is estimated to be worth globally between $650 billion and $1.5 trillion annually.

You’ve contributed to it if you’ve bought a Seahawks jersey, Blue Jays cap, tennis racquet or hockey stick, taken a golf lesson, or even purchased a Royals ticket or hot dog at a HarbourCats game. Just the act of turning on your TV to watch a game, which tens of millions will do this afternoon, contributes because it affects sponsor revenue through viewership numbers.

“It’s huge ... from all the different levels and to the passion people bring to it, you can see how it adds up,” says Michael Real, professor of communications and culture at Royal Roads University.

The biggest business day, by far, on the North American sporting calendar is today. Welcome to Super Sunday. And when the “local” team is playing in the Super Bowl, the day goes beyond even that. Maybe just call it Super Duper Sunday, as interest on the Island is at an intense pitch, with the Seattle Seahawks set to take on the New England Patriots today in Super Bowl XLIX at 3:30 p.m. in Glendale, Arizona.

Of course, this is Take 2, after the Seahawks won the first Super Bowl in franchise history last year in a moment savoured by thousands of Island fans who have followed the team for 39 years since the days of the old King Beers.

If you threw a net over the Island to capture fans of the four major-league North American sports, well over 50 per cent of people living here would say they follow some combination of the Seattle Seahawks, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and Vancouver Canucks. It might even be closer to 75 per cent.

It’s seasonal. Which means there is one team that is dominating the sporting discourse from the Island to the Lower Mainland down through Washington and Oregon states and across to Idaho.

“The Seahawks are huge. Even more than the Canucks,” says Mark Eraut, co-owner of the Tally-Ho Sports Bar on Douglas Street, of what the NFL club means to his business.

All 350 seats in his establishment were reserved a week before the Super Bowl.

“NFL Sundays are always really good for us, but Seahawks games especially. There is more interest in a regular-season Seahawks game than there is in the Grey Cup game. We try to promote the CFL, but it’s tough.”

If you don’t get to popular first-come establishments at least two hours ahead of time today, don’t even bother trying.

Marc Babin, events and communications manager for the Strathcona Hotel, said all 500 of his seats will be full today by 1:30 p.m. The customers won’t be alone in their Seahawks revelry — the Bud Girls will be there for company. It’s all part of the panoply of a Super Bowl Sunday — which for the second year in a row has taken on added relevance for local fans.

“I expect 80 to 85 per cent of the people here today will be cheering for the Seahawks,” Babin said.

“We’re 12 North.”

The Seahawks have acknowledged Victoria’s loyalty by bringing into town players such as Bruce Irvin, Bobby Wagner and Doug Baldwin, the mascot Blitz and the SeaGals cheerleaders for autograph sessions the past two years. The club even hoisted the 12th Man flag, to fly proudly atop the Inner Harbour flagpole, last year during Super Bowl weekend.

The Strathcona Hotel brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy, emblematic of the Seahawks’ first Super Bowl championship, to its rooftop patio last summer with the lineup to view it stretching out the door and snaking around the block.

That sort of loyalty among sports fans certainly affects the transportation industry, as well.

The Seahawks estimate about 10 per cent of the fans in the stands for games at CenturyLink Field are from British Columbia — which would make for around 6,700 — with 300 to 500 of those each game estimated to come from the Island.

Darrell Bryan, president and CEO of the Victoria Clipper ferry, can’t put a percentage figure on it, but said that trips from the Island to watch Seahawks football and Mariners baseball games are a “significant factor” in his business.

“We have great numbers of fans going down and it’s a very important part of our business,” added Bryan.

Sometimes, with apologies to Seinfeld, worlds collide.

“During those annual visits [to Safeco Field] by Toronto, we notice large numbers of fans going down from Victoria wearing Blue Jays caps,” said Bryan.

“[The sporting travel crush] peaks during Seahawks weekends. It’s hard for us to keep beer in stock on the southbound portion,” added Bryan, with a chuckle.

But, in what may be an emerging story about cross-border travel beyond just sports, Bryan is keeping his eye on the dropping loonie.

“We’re concerned about the exchange rate possibly scaring [Island] sports fans away,” he said.

Or, maybe not.

The term fan derives from fanatic. And most often there isn’t a disincentive large enough to keep fans from spending their money on their favourite teams, whether travelling to the games or purchasing merchandise.

Seahawks gear — jerseys, caps, T-shirts, even replica helmets — have been flying off the shelves of Island sporting goods stores the past two weeks as interest in the big game peaks.

“There’s a ton of interest in the Seahawks — 70 per cent of everything we’ve sold [recently] has been Seahawks-related,” said Paul Almeida, manager of the Out of Bounds sporting goods shop in the Victoria Bay Centre.

“It’s a mix of absolutely everything Seahawks. The [Russell] Wilson jersey is the top seller, [Marshawn] Lynch second, the 12th Man [fan] jersey third and [Richard] Sherman fourth. This is Seahawks Nation.”

There might be another big-league team trending locally and about to crash the party that includes the Seahawks, Mariners, Blue Jays and Canucks. Canada’s lone NBA team is on the rise, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“It’s hard to keep Raptors gear in stock,” noted Almeida.

It’s all part of this multi-headed beast called pro sports, the greatest manifestation of which in North America is the Super Bowl.

Royal Roads professor Real did one of the first academic studies of the Super Bowl 40 years ago when he wrote a research piece on it for the Journal of Communication while teaching at University of California-San Diego. It was a pioneering work.

“Four decades ago, the Super Bowl was already the largest annual media and advertising event on the continent,” said Real. “When people asked me then if it could get any bigger, I couldn’t have imagined how. But it keeps growing and getting larger. Even the coin toss is now a sponsored part of the broadcast.”

You might as well take out a bank loan if you wanted to be at the big game today in Glendale. Tickets were going for “$3,000 and getting close to $5,000,” said Shawn Frasch, owner of Victoria’s Be a Fan ticketing agency.

“I sold a pair locally to a Pats fan whose son is a Seahawks fan. So one of them is guaranteed to be leaving the stadium happy,” chuckled Frasch.

Maybe just call it the Teflon Bowl.

“Despite nearly daily scandals, the NFL keeps getting stronger,” Real said.

And the Island chapter of 12 North is not immune from the hype. Having the “home” team in the Super Bowl will do that to you.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com