In the last forty years, things have really changed.
For Super Bowl I, you could get in the game for $12.00. That's right, twelve singles. Even taking inflation into account, that's around sixty dollars today...about what a normal NFL game costs.
And you could get in...the 90,000 seat Los Angeles Coliseum had over 28,000 empty seats (game attendance under 62,000).
The halftime entertainment consisted of the marching bands from the University of Michigan and the University of Arizona.
Finally, the game was broadcast on two networks at the same time...NBC and CBS. Unfortunately, no tapes seem to exist of the first Super Bowl.
Today, the corporate types want to be wined and dined and entertained in their own plush skyboxes far removed from the working people that buy the bleacher tickets, drink beer, and cheer loudly...and also are the primary audience for the sponsors' products.
Someday, the NFL will realize they are losing the market that made them billions in the first place.