Philadelphia wins in an upset.
Super Bowl 52 has come and gone. Minnesota was on the world stage. Men and women sang songs and wrote poetry. What will the records say? Time will tell. Great amounts of money were made. Those who came were able to party, drink and be merry.
The City of Minneapolis profited. Media will say that over a million people descended upon our frozen Northland for ten days for merrymaking. We suspect the Super Bowl will now not return to the headwaters of the Mississippi in the state of Minnesota for 30 years.
Accountants will analyze the profits from this sporting event seen worldwide. Great American corporations sponsored, invested in and made great profit. The powerful were networking connections. Celebrities were celebrated.
The downtown streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul enjoyed a vast number of people and the money they spent. The NFL, that billion-dollar corporation, the exclusive gentlemen’s club of 32 White owners, continued to make money.
As a columnist in a Black newspaper, I would like to be writing about how the Black community also enjoyed and profited from the investment in Super Bowl 52 in our stadium. But that would not be true in the in the real world, only in the wish world. Once again, with the exception of Louis King, a great Black entrepreneur, the Black communities of Minnesota are on the outside looking in, and not making a dime from this sporting event.
For many years, as I have exposed in these columns, we were often promised an economic windfall, but only Mr. King made a profit, corporately and personally on the stadium. How is that? Why does Minnesota continually upset us with shell game promises of expectations and dreams? How is it they promise us to be included in sharing profits and business success when they are clearly false?
In the coming months, assessments will be falsely reporting that the Black community in the State of Minnesota profited from Super Bowl 52. It is no different from when the same was promised regarding the construction of the people’s stadium, as false representations were made that a great Black workforce would help to build the people’s stadium, with Black men and women trained in the art of construction, and with Black businesses taking profit from the building of the People’s stadium.
These representations proclaiming Black American communities profited and enjoyed the opportunity will not be supported by facts. Once again, the Black community of Minnesota is betrayed by the profit enjoyed by Minnesota and the NFL.
There will be “reports” once again that the Black community enjoyed tremendous economic success. Who? How much? In the tradition of a Shakespearean play, children will sing songs and poets will write poetry about the economic success in the Black community.
We know refrains about Black prosperity have always been, are now, and will continue to be false, as we are kept outside the great profit castle. It becomes acceptable fake news and fake history. Why do people, Black and White, stand by and allow the great book on Super Bowl 52 continue to tighten the economic noose around Black Minnesota?
The average ticket price was over $5,000. The highest was $100,000. But we were not invited to a seat at the table of this party. No place for us. No chair. Not even a key to the room.
We were promised 35 percent of stadium construction jobs, but it was not so. We have asked for proof. No one has yet provided the verified numbers.
On that magnificent, glorious Viking stadium’s purple boat, no rides for Black Minnesota.
Stay tuned.
Ron hosts radio and TV shows. To read his solutions papers, books, and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
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