The cheapest Super Bowl ticket, in the upper level of the end zone, is currently selling for $3,500. Hotel prices in Miami and Fort Lauderdale have quintupled their regular rates. And it's not like Miami hotels are renowned for their cheap February rates to begin with.
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| 26-year-old Cornell graduate Sarah Spain. (Getty Images) |
For instance, for only $7,295 per person (double occupancy) you can get an all-inclusive deal with StubHub that includes an upper level seat, lodging, and a spot in a celebrity golf tournament. Don't worry, I'm sure your wife will understand.
But for the rest of us, fans without a tremendous bank account to draw from, there is hope. That's because the Internet has opened the door to outlandish, intelligent and creative fan schemes more than any other communication device in world history. And sometimes creative fans who would otherwise be watching the game from their couch can end up at the game itself.
Which brings us to Sarah Spain, a 26-year-old Cornell graduate and lifelong Bears fan from Lake Forest, Ill., who currently lives in Brentwood, Calif. Spain didn't have several grand for a ticket, but she did have a rather fetching figure, brains, cleavage to spare and an Internet connection. So she did what most of us would do in that situation: Put herself up for auction on eBay as a Super Bowl football date.
Spain's auction commenced last Wednesday night at about 11 p.m. Immediately the bidding caught fire and her quest ricocheted around the Internet. Because the ClayNation column is nothing if not the most hard-hitting paragon of cyberspace journalism, we tracked down Spain after a helpful link to her MySpace page on www.withleather.com and conducted a telephone interview about her brilliant plan. So meet Sarah Spain, Super Bowl XLI's most creative fan. And start thinking about your own schemes for next year. Or being her date. Read on.
1. Tell us about your quest.
"Basically I didn't have six grand to see the game so I was trying to think of ways to get tickets. It started out with me joking with my boss about wanting to set up a Web site and get Super Bowl tickets that way. Only I have no idea how to do HTML. So he said put it up on eBay. I think he was joking but that night at 11 on Wednesday (the 24th) I put it up. Asking for someone to take me to the game. I didn't really want any money, I just wanted the ticket to the Super Bowl. I thought it was a cute idea but I was worried about people thinking it would be shady and the bidding was going so high I thought I needed to add in the fact that this was just for a ticket to the game and nothing else. I thought that would be apparent, but you know, it's the Internet and there's no telling who's out there bidding or what they're thinking. But that first auction was shut down by eBay after the bidding got out of control. So I put up a second auction the next day where I said I was selling my pom-poms (literally the pom-poms) in exchange for the ticket. And then eBay took down that one too."
2. Who did you expect to respond to your auction?
"My thought was that a company or the Bears themselves would see it and think it made sense to send me to the game. And that happened. Look, I'm not an idiot. I didn't put up a picture of myself in a nun's outfit. I went to Cornell, I've got brains and I knew what it would take to get some attention. But some people still ripped me for the idea. I've got tough skin though so I didn't care if people in Kansas liked me or not. But, you know, now I'm going to the Super Bowl and I didn't have to be shady or take anyone's money."
3. Now, according to your eBay posting, you already had plane tickets to Miami. Was that a gamble that Miami was going to be fun no matter who played in the Super Bowl or did you buy them as soon as the Bears advanced?
"I bought them five minutes after the Bears went to the Super Bowl. If it doesn't happen again for 21 years that the Bears are in the Super Bowl, I didn't want to be sitting around waiting for it to happen. I wanted to do it while I could."
4. Do you remember the 1985 Bears Super Bowl team?
