Once upon a time, the die hard NFL fan who couldn’t afford the outrageous (corporate) ticket prices for the Super Bowl had an alternative. The alternative was Las Vegas. For years, Las Vegas held Super Bowl parties at almost every casino. For paid admission, you got to watch the game usually on stadium size monitors, all you can eat stadium food and best of all some parties were Open Bar. Oh those were the days. 

Today, those parties are almost non-existent due to the NFL threatening lawsuits on casinos for charging for an event that is free. This was a rude awakening in 2004 when my friends and I were in a cab after landing in Las Vegas and our cab driver told us “The NFL sent lawyers to shut down the parties!” We were not quite sure whether this was rumor or fact.  This would be our 4th year going to the party and we had been waiting for this day since the end of the last Super Bowl.

At the hotel, we jumped out of the cab and headed immediately to the concierge where they told us “We will not be having a party this year.” We tried to find other parties but received the same disappointing news from every place. 

So since that year, my friends and I have joined the masses in watching Super Bowl from a TV in one of our living rooms. Its not Vegas but we still have fun; and maybe, all those years in Vegas, wasn’t about being in Vegas that made it fun, but rather just us getting together to celebrate the biggest Sunday in sports.