Not everything is completely ready for the grand Super Bowl ahead here on February 1, but it will be.

It is Reid Sigmon, whose backside is on the line again, who says it will be. He has done it before; Super Bowls in Tampa and Jacksonville, an NCAA Final Four in St. Petersburg. He knows the feeling.

“We’ll be ready” Sigmon said, “we got a fine Super Bowl committee.”

That committee is led by veteran on-the-spot Tampa businessman Dick Beard, an all-around sport. The Super Bowl at Raymond James Stadium is six months away but is already being well hyped.

NBC will do it live world wide. It will be telecast in 30 languages to 230 countries.  Of course, in the days ahead of the games, television everywhere will center on the event. Some 72,500 will see it live at the R-J.

Think the James Family and company are not glad they bought those naming rights, as Jim Overton suggested Hunt James do?

This will be the fourth Super Bowl in Tampa, the first of which coming in 1984. The most memorable came in 1991 when the Gulf War broke out, causing the cancellation of some Super Bowl week events and setting the stage for the most dramatic night ever at old Tampa Stadium.
The next three Super Bowls are assigned but the fourth is now open, though the competition now has little to do with past merit, but the clout of owners. Moreover, those of past experience are gone, inactive, or soon will be. If there are to be Super Bowls in Tampa’s future, let the call go out for them now, as well as alerts to the Buccaneer-owning Glazer Family.

But back to the future.

“We are six months away from our next one and we need that time,’’ said Sigmon. “But, we can get it done, and well.  We know the game will be sold out. The NFL has taken charge of the suites, the so-called luxury boxes and will do as it has in the past, leave the leasors with half of their seats and take the other half for annual regular sponsors. We also will put several hundred temporary suites in the end zones. The NFL handles the halftime show. Remember, Bob Best of Tampa (first Buc public relations chief did it for over 20 years) once produced them all.”

The buildup, Sigmon reminded, will be staggering. All TV networks will be around, but only NBC can work the game itself (Channel 8, WFLA in Tampa). ESPN will be all over the place. Top restaurants, like Bern’s, are already under siege. Some said the event will draw thousands of fans without tickets that will attempt to bid for them upon arrival.

“Dottie McKinnon is our volunteer assembly person.  She is good at this. We have about 7,000 volunteers. We need 8,000, for assorted jobs,” said Sigmon. “These are thankless jobs, for the good of our town, I think. We’ll get them and they will do fine.”

We have done fine in the past, a reason we are preparing for a fourth Super Bowl. Not many thought this great place in which we live could become what it has become. So vibrant in so many things with sports, transportation, the port and business leading the way - with the Tampa International Airport, Raymond James Stadium, and now the Downtown Arena among the leaders.

Sorry, time to stop bragging about ourselves.

But, we haven’t done badly.

Why, we even have the University of South Florida playing big-time football under Jim Leavitt in that stadium not everybody wanted to see built.