How the Super Bowl has Changed Since 1967 Will Amaze You

We're looking forward to Super Bowl 48. No. 1 was the World Championship of Professional Football played in Los Angeles, Jan. 15, 1967. Brilliantly, Commissioner Pete Rozelle repeatedly referred to it as the "Super Bowl" and the name stuck.

That's been the only constant in the NFL championship game since then. Much else has changed. We took a look back to see how the game has grown from a time when the very first one didn't sell out, to the amounts people will pay for a ticket today. Here we go!

• Average Super Bowl ticket price 1967: $12. Today (for a decent seat) about $1,000. Note:  Bleacherreport.com says back in '67 people were outraged by what they felt was a vastly over priced ticket for any sporting event!
• Television Audience 1967:  51.1 million. The 1967 game between Green Bay and Kansas City was the only one broadcast on all three major networks at the same time - ABC, CBS, NBC. Television audience (expected) 2015:  112 million. That 1967 figure was remarkably high for it's time, and helped grow the game greatly. At that time, the championship between the NFL and AFL (before the merger) was considered a novelty.
• Average cost of a TV ad during game in 1967: $37,500.  2015: Estimated to be about 3.8 million.  (These figures are for a typical :30 ad.)
• Average size of offensive line 1967: The Packers center, two guards and two tackles together averaged about 245 lbs. Center Ken Bowman was the lightest at 230, Guard Gale Gillingham the heaviest at 255.  Average size of line 2015:  313 lbs. Of the four remaining teams left going into the NFC and AFC Championship games, none had a starting lineman under 300 lbs. However, the average height has not jumped that much.  Green Bay's 1967 line was 6'3";  the 2015 Packers are just a shade under 6'5" average. It's around the middle where linemen are growing.
• The Average price of a new car (to get to the game?) in 1967:  $2,750. Today:  Despite so many different classes and sub-classes, about $31,000.

So, as we look at differences between the Super Bowl then and now, about the only thing that HAS stayed the same is the nickname given by Rozelle, which turns out was perhaps one of the biggest parts of making the game truly larger than life.