It’s a Super Day for Even the Blase : Big Game a welcome tonic--L.A. area may get regular doses

Let’s admit it. By the time the Super Bowl game kicks off this afternoon, a little after 3 p.m. in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, we’ll be glad that the hype is over and the game has finally begun.

But it is indeed a big event, by almost any measure. Professional football’s championship game, and the thousands of people it drew to the Los Angeles area, will pump an estimated $150 million into the local economy.

And after the rough year we’ve had--what with riots, floods, earthquakes, drought and a recession-bound economy dominating the local news--isn’t it great for Los Angeles to be able to show the world its prettier face? Even the weather has cooperated, giving us a week of balmy sunshine to replace the heavy rains that have been the most notable feature of this winter.

Congratulations are in order for the business and political leaders who worked so well together as a host committee and brought the big game to town for the first time in six years. They set an example of private/public cooperation that should be a model for future civic endeavors.

But, boy, even in the few years since it was last played in Southern California, the Super Bowl has surely become a huge show. Now, for a week before the game itself, sports exhibitions such as the NFL Experience, musical concerts and other extravaganzas are held as preliminaries. Even the press conferences have become mega-productions, drawing thousands of journalists.

No doubt about it. The Super Bowl has become so big that even a busy, sprawling place like Los Angeles can’t ignore it. And even the fact that those who would prefer to disregard the whole matter can barely do so isn’t so bad. After all, it used to be thought that Los Angeles was so blase that nothing short of the Olympics could make this city stop and pay attention.

Such studied insouciance has not been on display this year. Most folks are actually excited, and we hope National Football League officials--who agreed to come here on short notice after a civil rights controversy in Arizona forced them to move the 1993 game out of Phoenix--have noticed. After all, as much fun as the Olympics are, we can host those competitions only every 50 years or so. The Super Bowl is played every year, and there’s a chance that the NFL may be bringing its premier attraction back to the Los Angeles area every three or four years.

That’s because the league is considering a policy of rotating the Super Bowl among three Sun Belt cities--Miami, New Orleans and Los Angeles--that have at least one big stadium and the hotel and tourist facilities to handle the visitors. On occasion the game would go elsewhere, like Atlanta, where it will be played next year, but Southern California could count on hosting the game at the Rose Bowl, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum or Anaheim Stadium on a fairly regular basis. Let us go on the record as being very much in favor of that idea.

So on with the game. But before it starts, a final thank you to the host committee that worked so hard to bring it to town, a final wish that all our guests will have a good time and a final reminder that we look forward to doing it all again soon.