More Americans watch the Super Bowl than vote in presidential elections. Cities compete for the lucrative rights to host a game, and ad agencies, merchandisers, security personnel, and celebrity party planners quarterback their own teams starting a year in advance. Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday for sports fans, who purchase 1. 5 million large-screen TVs in the week before the game, attend one of 7. 5 million parties, and eat more food than on any day other than Thanksgiving. Here, sports journalist Allen St. John gets rare access to the people and corporations that mastermind this iconic event. He visits a broadcast booth, a Madison Avenue conference room where a massive advertising campaign is tested, and a stadium architect. Covering the political snafus, the organizational nightmares, and the hype machine, St. John weaves a fascinating portrait of the biggest cultural phenomenon in American sport. --From publisher description.