Super Bowl 2012 by the numbers |

Super Bowl 2012 is blitzing us like a crazed linebacker, coming up in a matter of hours, and the numbers are stacking up quickly. It’s a weekend of superlatives, with astonishing numbers swirling around those brave warriors on the field.

In the Super Bowl, everything is larger than life. Instead of a dozen TV cameras for normal football game broadcasts, NBC rolls out 57 cameras. Instead of betting a couple of bucks on the game, people bet hundreds. And instead of eating a couple of chicken wings, an entire nation gangs up to eat 1.25 billion of them in one day.

Interesting, no? Anyway, here are some more numbers:

$10 billion: to be gambled on Super Bowl XLVI internationally, expected to be the most bet-upon game in Super Bowl history, according to ESPN
1.25 billion: chicken wings eaten Super Bowl weekend
$720 million: construction cost of the Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium, built in hopes of hosting a Super Bowl
111 million: last year’s average U.S. TV audience, the largest in U.S. TV history. It could hit 113 million viewers this year, according to an unscientific poll by MediaLife
$4 million: price of the most-expensive advertisement, according to Reuters
$3.5 million: for a 30-second ad, on average, up from $3 million last year
68,000: number of seats in Lucas Oil Stadium for Super Bowl XLVI
$3,985: Average price paid for one Super Bowl 2012 ticket
3,000: hours of video content to be acquired, encoded and transported by NBC
475: crew members NBC will employ for the pre-game and game productions
180: countries and territories in which Super Bowl XLVI will air
77%: accuracy of the stock market predictor that if the NFC team (Giants) wins the Super Bowl, the market will rise for the year, or drop if the AFC team (Patriots) wins
75: cameras installed in Indianapolis in and around Lucas Oil Stadium for Super Bowl security, according to Public Intelligence
70: national network ads NBC will air around this year’s game, sold out shortly after Thanksgiving weekend, according to Reuters
60: miles of cable for NBC’s cameras and microphones
57: cameras NBC will deploy for the broadcast, including the pre- and post-game shows
50%: price rise of a Super Bowl commercial in the last 10 years
47%: of Super Bowl viewers will check their smartphones up to 10 times or more during the game, according to a survey by Velti.
46: It’s the 46th Super Bowl (XLVI)
40: cameras NBC will devote to game coverage
29: Trucks and trailers NBC will use for the broadcast
25: languages spoken on the international broadcasts
12: number of Super Bowl appearances for Giants and Patriots combined
6: channels of DTS Neural Surround 5.1 technology integrated into the HD broadcast
5: Super Bowls for New England coach Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady
4: Hi-Motion II super ultra-motion cameras, shooting at 1000fps at a resolution of 1080p
3: $0.03 — average cost to advertisers per viewer for 30 seconds of ad time during the Super Bowl
2: dimensions — broadcast will be in 2D HDTV, no 3D HDTV broadcast this year.
1: winner. Will it be the Patriots or the Giants?