Super Bowl XLV: Is Everything Bigger and Better in Dallas?

If there's a point at which sports and money, politics and high living intersect, it is the Super Bowl. Presidents, governors, mayors, glad-handers and boosters -- all get drawn into the whirlwind of the Super Bowl circus. This year is no different. And if there's one place where sports and politics, money and high living mix and match, it is Dallas, which for the first time ever is hosting the big game.

For one thing, there's George W. Bush, the former president and Texas Rangers owner who makes his home in Dallas. Bush is building a presidential library on the campus of Southern Methodist University and rebuilding his image. Sports are a big part of that. He and Laura Bush would never miss the chance to hold a prominent spot among the record-setting 105,000 people who will overflow behemoth Cowboys Stadium for the game between the Green Bay Packers (three Super Bowl championships) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (six rings, the most in league history).

Sports and politics are inextricably linked in our culture, one logrolling the other. Sports give politicians the appearance of having a common touch, a visceral connection to the voters. And politicians lend sports an extra touch of importance and celebrity.

It's safe to say that in America, no other great sports event -- not the World Series, not the Final Four, not the Kentucky Derby -- holds more appeal than the Super Bowl. In fact, the Super Bowl is an American cultural phenomenon, now 45 years strong, that is watched by 100 million people around the world.

President Obama got into the fray early this year when he predicted that his hometown team, the Chicago Bears, would go all the way to the championship game. The Bears lost in the NFC title game, but the president will nevertheless make an appearance at the Super Bowl -- not in person but in a videotaped interview with that thorn in his side, Bill O'Reilly, the Fox News host. The interview will air as part of the Fox pregame package, which starts at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, four hours before kickoff.

Last year Obama predicted correctly the winner of the Super Bowl: New Orleans. This year? He's not said yet, but when he dropped in on Wisconsin for a post-State of the Union tour last week, he happily accepted three green-and-gold Packers jerseys and quoted legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi, for whom the Super Bowl trophy is named, saying: "There is only one place in my game, and that's first place."

Wagers have been going back and forth. The governors of the two teams' home states, the mayors of Green Bay and Pittsburgh mayors, along with thousands of Terrible Towel-waving and Cheesehead-wearing fans have been placing bets, legal and illegal, and many of their partisans will fly to North Texas to raise their banners at Cowboy Stadium and make points with the folks back home.

Even nationally known museums are getting into the act, the New York Times reported. If Green Bay wins, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh will loan Pierre Renoir's "Bathers With a Crab" to the Milwaukee Art Museum (the closest to Green Bay). If the Steelers win, Milwaukee will give up (briefly) Gustave Caillebotte's "Boating on the Yerres."

Nothing is too silly or too big when it comes to Super Bowl glory.

And it's a big deal to North Texas, which is expected to reap an estimated $611 million windfall (compared with Miami's $333 million gross last year). It's also a big deal to Fort Worth, which may get to show visitors it's not just a cowboy town in the shadow of Dallas; and it's a big deal to suburban Arlington, where Cowboys Stadium rises like a giant spaceship midway between Dallas and Fort Worth.

If anyone had any doubts about everything being really bigger in Texas, just look at the stadium. A $1.2 billion project, it's among the world's biggest, with the largest TV screen anywhere. It's bigger and better than many skeptics expected and has become a tourist favorite.

The stadium was the dream of Jerry Jones, the combustible owner and boss of the Cowboys, who had it built with the stated intention of having his Cowboys play in the Super Bowl there this year. And why not? The Cowboys have won five Lombardi Trophies, just behind the Steelers. It's not for nothing that the team is called (though not always with love) America's Team.

Alas, it didn't happen. But this is about money, not just sentiment. The Cowboys are one of the two or three top sports franchises in the world, worth more than any other team in any sport in the nation -- just ahead of the New York Yankees. Like that fabled baseball franchise, the Cowboys spend and make crazy money. Even with a losing record, the Cowboys were the top drawing team in the NFL this season, averaging 87,000 fans per home game.

So Dallas, with its championship airs, seems a natural habitat for the Super Bowl. And Super Bowl XLV -- the circus maximus -- is Dallas' best chance to show its good face to the world. This week, at least 5,500 members of the news media are descending on Big D and surrounding cities. Some will be housed at the 1,800-room Sheraton in downtown Dallas. ESPN plans 80 hours of special programming; CNN will be in Arlington, at the game; and more than 150 radio stations are expected to air programs from the media center in Dallas.

In addition, before the ice and snow storm this week, when some events and flights were canceled, the Dallas-Fort Worth area expected about 147,000 out-of-state visitors; 130 corporate sponsors and advertisers (cost for a 30-second Super Bowl spot on Fox: $2.8 million-$3 million); 700 private jets; and 150,000 additional passengers at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. As Dallas-Fort Worth braces itself for more snow on Friday, Jerry Jones said he wasn't worried. "I'm excited that it's supposed to warm up before Sunday. We're getting a huge number of fans out to the stadium for the game."

With so much at stake, Dallas is going all out to create a new level of excitement -- or bacchanalian excess. Nothing is too over-the-top, nothing is too expensive. For example, Super Bowl XLV has the priciest Super Bowl ticket, at $11,000; the highest number of donors giving $1 million -- 12 -- to be "founding sponsors," and the most lavish party -- Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's invitation-only bash Saturday night at Victory Park, an entertainment area in downtown Dallas, with Usher as the headliner.

P Diddy and the Black-Eyed Peas will also perform at big-ticket parties ($500 and up) over the weekend. The PM Nightlife Lounge, in the cool Joule Hotel downtown, will spotlight Erykah Badu (tables start at $1,100) while the new retro-glam mega-club Zouk will feature Deion Sanders and Snoop Dogg (tables start at $3,000).

But partying, dancing and drinking are not just the preserve of clubs and bars. Restaurants are revving up and getting into the act, coming up with Super Bowl libations and snacks for gourmet football fans. At the famous Mansion on Turtle Creek, the bar offers up lobster sliders ($22) and Moscow Mules ($14), and at the Dallas establishment's favorite Al Biernat's, the lounge will serve a Super Bowl menu including Wagyu carpaccio ($27.50), $2,000 bottle service, and Johnnie Walker Blue Label on the rocks for $44 a glass. The Rattlesnake Bar at the Ritz-Carlton plans nothing quite that extreme, just a little game-time cocktail they call Extra Point, a bit of añejo tequila with strawberry-ginger syrup, agave nectar and sugar-rim glass for just $12.

Thousands of ticketless fans, many of whom are going to Dallas just as they do to the Mardi Gras -- to party -- will mob the scores of sports bars, the dives as well as fancy venues with dozens of TV screens, for sliders, Tex-Mex galore, and colorful sweet drinks. A favorite of the locals is the Nodding Donkey, which is offering everything anyone wants to eat and drink for $100. The Draft Media Sports Lounge at the Sheraton downtown has 21 huge flat-screens, comfy seating areas, and a Half-Time martini that, at just $9, won't set anyone back a fortune.

Best of all for tailgate fans who love the smell of ballpark hotdogs and barbecued ribs and burgers, who prefer to drink out of the bottle and slouch on plastic fold-out lounging chairs, there's the huge parking lot surrounding Cowboys Stadium. For $200 a person, fans can park and sit out there, watch the game on outdoor billboard-size screens, and join in the roar coming from the lucky fools who made it inside.