National Football League

Super Bowl party scene is a non-stop celebration

Published Feb. 1, 2014 1:00 p.m. ET

foxsports

If you had to choose between going to the Super Bowl or going to the best party at the Super Bowl, it's an easy decision -- pick the best party. And this week in New York, the city has been awash in spectacular parties, bold-faced names, cleavage, suit coats, high-priced entertainers, free drinks, and men and women wearing black jackets.

Everything has gone swimmingly at these parties except for the coat check lines at the end of the evening. The lines are overloaded, understaffed and filled with angry drinkers, and the poor jacket retrieval staffs have been forced, time and again, to try to find coats after tickets are lost.

The biggest problem with finding the right jacket under an onslaught of party-goers? Everyone in the entire city is wearing the same thing: a black coat.

The media spent years writing about the potential dangers of the weather in New York City, with the game-time forecast a comparatively balmy 40 degrees, and the biggest weather casualty so far of the New York Super Bowl has been the coat-check employees. Too many people at too many parties, all arriving and leaving at pretty much the same time, has led to chaos. There have even been arrests at the coat check line.

Really.

And while the Super Bowl will command the nation's attention on Sunday, the most coveted ticket this week isn't to the Super Bowl, it's to Jay-Z's Saturday night performance at DirecTV's limited audience party. With rumors of Beyonce joining him on stage and a purported performance fee of $2 million, Jay-Z's managed to do the impossible -- he's upstaged the New York City Super Bowl.

The new Sinatra, indeed.

How difficult were tickets to come by for Jay-Z's performance?

Even huge celebrities were pulling strings to get into the event -- and still failing to get in.

The second toughest ticket this week in New York? Howard Stern's 60th birthday.

And while Jay-Z's performance was the most sought after ticket, the central focus for the Super Bowl's entertainment festivities was once again the Bud Light Hotel.

While every brand is aching to grab customer attention at the Super Bowl, Bud Light has won the entertainment game again. With most big brands content to have one night of activities, Bud Light and its partners put on events for four straight days at its venue alongside the Bud Light Hotel.

This year instead of merely making over a regular hotel wasn't enough. Not for New York City. Instead Bud Light brought in a new cruise ship, anchored it at 48th and 12th Avenue, filled the boat with food and drink, made everything on the boat free, and bedazzled partyers with a five-day medley of performances at its stage venue that ran the gamut from a Bud Light- and EA Sports-produced tribute to New York City hip-hop on Thursday night -- Naughty by Nature, the Roots, Busta Rhymes and Run DMC all took the stage -- to Saturday's Bud Light-presented Zac Brown Band and Foo Fighters duo.

While the national stimulus bill may have run out, the entertainment stimulus bill is thriving thanks to the Super Bowl parties. The competition to throw the best Big Apple party is every bit as fierce as the competition on the field Sunday and as a result the big-name entertainers have cashed a series of massive checks. Much more massive than the checks the players will cash for winning the Super Bowl -- each player will receive $92,000 for the win.

All the bold-face entertainers are making a lot more than that.

How many big names are performing here? It's a roster unlike any in Super Bowl history, entertainment options to fit the city that never sleeps.

The aforementioned Jay-Z was the most sought-after ticket of Super Bowl week but just look at this roster of performers putting on shows this week: Kings Of Leon, Robin Thicke, Kendrick Lamar, the Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Imagine Dragons, the Zac Brown Band, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, Jake Owen, the Black Keys, Goo Goo Dolls, and Fall Out Boy all took the stage around the city.

Not your speed? How about Patti LaBelle, she's here too.

Just about all of these entertainers will be pocketing a quarter of a million or more for their performances -- it's damn fine work if you can get it, and it has much better career longetivity than football.

While Peyton Manning is an old man at 37, Jay-Z is 44.

That's ancient for football years, but youthful for performers. Long after Manning has hung up the cleats, Jay-Z will still be cashing checks with his mic.

Jay's got 99 problems, but being rich ain't one.