NFL to Super Bowl halftime acts: pay to play

Super Bowl 50 national logo

Hey, NFL, your cynicism is showing.

According to multiple reports, the league will soon begin asking artists who want to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show, to pay them. Halftime acts generally get a big time increase in sales and touring revenue, which is one reason why the league wants artists to pay - for exposure.

The Super Bowl is one of, if not the biggest sporting events of the year with millions of people watching in different parts of the world, so the NFL is in a position to do something like this. However, this doesn't mean that it's not a strange request, and its apparently been met with skepticism among the finalists for this year's game.

The three finalists for the halftime show this year are Coldplay, Rihanna and Katy Perry, all very well-known artists who can sell out major arenas and stadiums throughout the world. The NFL generally gravitates toward the big name so people will watch.

Acts such as Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Bruce Springsteen and many others have played this event, and those are all people, as well as the three finalists for this year, who don't necessarily need to pay for more publicity.

Jay Busbee of Yahoo.com reports that last year, Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers played for roughly 12 minutes. Commercial time was valued at $4 million per 30-second slot, which came out to nearly $100 million in publicity.

Not to mention the NFL also had the Chili Peppers basically fake their performance.

Obviously, the big name acts such as the finalists this year, likely all have the money to put out for something like this, and I guess that kind of publicity is good in the grand scheme of things, but I'm on the side of the skeptical artist in this case.

Why would I pay to play at an event when I was initially asked to do it in the first place? You're not paying me as it is. That's like me asking a catering company to come cater an event, but they'd have to pay me $4 million every 30 seconds to be there because I'm a big deal and they'd get tons of publicity with a pretty good, but not necessarily guaranteed chance of an increase in business.

What do you think of the NFL requiring artists to pay to play the Super Bowl halftime show? Follow me on Twitter - @JesseGaunce

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