Ka-Ching! It's Super Expensive

PHOENIX, Feb. 2, 2008 — -- If you look up Super Bowl in the dictionary, somewhere in the definition it must read, "license to cash in."

I just paid $700 to rent a small, ordinary car for five days. My hotel bill will top $1,500.

Throw in some food, event tickets (not game tickets) and a few souvenirs and, well, it gets downright scary.

Crazy thing is I got off easy. In the last 24 hours:

I met two women from Pennsylvania who spent $65,000 on a package "deal" (their word, not mine) to come to the Super Bowl.

A young couple from Massachusetts gleefully described how they spent more than 10 grand for the chance to see history in the making.

Some houses are going for $250,000 a week (no, it's not a typo).

And even nuns are renting spare rooms at their monastery to tap-in to the seemingly endless supply of cash, flowing through Phoenix for the Super Bowl.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying this is bad -- just slightly mind-boggling. There's an energy in the city right now that is palpable ... and unusual. Until recently, I lived here for six years. This week, the city is beating in a way that I've never seen.

There's something happening around the clock and lines of people anxious to take part. And while everyone's here for the big game, it almost seems anti-climactic after the week of super-sized, star-studded events. A-list celebs abound and the parties are endless. I overhear more conversations about how and when people are going to get into the Maxim, Sports Illustrated and Playboy events than about the game itself.

For one surreal week, the regular places and regular people are no longer regular. There's an air about them -- that for this moment in time it is somehow worth the extra effort and extra cash to say that you're a part of something very few can say they've experienced even once in a lifetime.