The most expensive city in America is looking for free help.
Good luck with that.
According to Peggy McGlone of the Newark Star-Ledger, the Super Bowl XLVIII host committee wants 15,000 to 25,000 volunteers to help put on the event. Workers must attend a training session, submit to a background check, and serve at least two shifts of three to four hours each from January 25 through February 3.
Ed Jackenthal already has signed up, along with “thousands” who have agreed to provide no-cost labor. “Part of it is pride, representing the franchise and representing the region,” Jackenthal said. “New Yorkers get such a bad reputation, but we can be as warm and courteous as the next person.”
Being warm and courteous is one thing. Being suckers is another.
As the Super Bowl becomes a bigger and bigger event, generating more and more millions of dollars for a wide variety of for-profit enterprises every year, why should anyone help the effort for free?
Maybe the New York thing to do would be to refuse to be taken for fools. The Super Bowl host committees line up free work because they can. If the people providing free work realize that the folks they’re serving can afford to pay for the help, the volunteers would no longer have to.
So if folks in the Big Apple really want to show off their civic pride, they should engage in the ultimate New York activity by giving the host committee the finger.