Superbowl LVI: Most Profitable Event of the Year Asks Performers to Work For Free
“Whether it’s one volunteer or 400, every single person working the most profitable event of the year should be paid.”
The Superbowl is one of the most profitable events in the American calendar, which is why it’s a bit odd that for this year’s halftime show, organisers launched a call out for 400 volunteer performers.
To support the halftime performance by ‘hip hop dream team’ Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar at SoFi Stadium, the creative agency Bloc LA advertised for hundreds of volunteers to perform as part of the “field cast”, with no transport provided, or pay for 72 hours worth of rehearsals across the days leading up to the event.
After a post by dancer Taja Riley on Instagram (to over 100k followers), there was “substantial protest”. SoFi Stadium is in Inglewood, a city in its own right in the south-eastern LA area whose residents are predominantly people of colour. The LA Times reported that Riley took issue with this in particular:
“I think that in a performance that is going to highlight predominantly African American movers, African American recording artists and African American culture — Inglewood stand up — I think this is the opportunity ... to really step up and do something about this,” Riley said in her live video, adding that the opportunity was made greater because it is Black History Month and that as an African American woman, [choreographer Fatima] Robinson is a powerful symbol in the industry.”
It was later announced that field cast members would be paid California’s minimum wage, $15 an hour.
However, this is less than union performer rates, and Forbes Magazine reported that volunteers “could be expected to be on-call as many as seven full days without any guarantee of their participation or payment”, calling it “the greatest Superbowl halftime controversy since Janet and Justin”.
To put this in perspective, the NFL is making billions. More than $1 billion a year, at the very least. In 2021, the NYT reported that the League signed an 11-year media rights deal across several TV networks for around $110 billion.
Above and beyond those particular TV-deal billions, the NFL is also rolling around like Scrooge McDuck in ticket sales: 2022 ticket packages started at $5,950 per person, rising to a (frankly, bizarre) $21,250 per person.
This isn’t even all the money generated by the single sporting event. The sale of merchandise is of course inflated in the run-up, another financial boon for the League. That’s even before the infamous, and world’s most expensive, 30-second advertising slots, which this year went for up to $6.5 million. That money is collected by the TV networks, justifying their multi-billion-dollar outlay.
Riley and others have criticised SAG-AFTRA, the entertainment union who represent dancers, for handling the situation badly:
What Riley and her supporters have shown is that all workers in industries with notoriously bad pay and conditions - which certainly includes the cultural industries - can use public stands of solidarity, whether on picket lines or Instagram, to uplift and protect our colleagues.
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