SHOW ME CENTER CREW WILL HAWK SUPER BOWL SOUVENIRS

A 10-member Show Me Center crew headed by center Director David Ross is going to the Super Bowl in Atlanta.

But they don't expect to see much of the game -- they'll be working in the Georgia Dome selling Super Bowl merchandise.

"We're going down to man four booths in the Georgia Dome," Ross said Friday afternoon, shortly before the crew took to the road. "We've got the entire third tier of the Georgia Dome."

The crew includes Ross' wife Susan and Cape Girardeau County Clerk Rodney Miller. This is Miller's first trip to the Super Bowl with the "novelty" crew.

But Ross and his wife, and many of the crew members, have done it before. "This is our third one; we did New Orleans in 1990 and then we did Tampa in 1991," said Ross.

The crew skipped the 1992 Super Bowl and were snowed out of the Super Bowl in Minneapolis in 1993.

A snowstorm in the Minneapolis area prompted the company in charge of merchandise sales to elect to use local crews rather than bring in workers from other regions such as Cape Girardeau, Ross said.

Ross said that merchandise sales company, FMI of San Diego, is the one the Show Me Center crew is involved with this year.

"Different companies bid for the rights to sell merchandise at these mega events," he explained.

Ross said FMI probably paid more than $1 million for the right to hawk Super Bowl novelties this year.

At both the previous Super Bowls Ross has worked, there have been more than 130 people hawking merchandise.

"It is work, but it is fun," said Ross. "We don't see a lot of the games."

But while they are busy hawking Super Bowl T-shirts and the like, they do get to enjoy the party atmosphere of the crowd. "There is a certain amount of electricity in the air, and we are part of that atmosphere," said Ross.

"There is a certain amount of adrenalin that gets to running, and you pick up on the excitement of the crowd," said Ross.

"It serves as a break from our annual routine," he added, equating it to a winter vacation.

"One of the guys is going to start his vacation from there and go on down to Florida."

The crew works on commission. "It pretty much finances our trip."

Ross said a job as a Show Me Center crew member is a part-time one, selling merchandise at various events at the Cape Girardeau facility.

"Quite honestly, we are good" at selling merchandise, he said.

"It's kind of a competition among the people who are down there. You want to turn out the most volume, sell the most product," explained Ross.

He said crew members themselves get caught up in the souvenir atmosphere, buying some of the Super Bowl merchandise for themselves.

Ross said his crew could have sold merchandise in Denver for the Pope's visit last year, but turned it down because it was too far away.

Ross said his crew will probably be given about $50,000 to $70,000 worth of novelty items to sell at Sunday's Super Bowl. Crews are responsible for keeping track of the merchandise. "You can't afford to make a mistake. If somebody walks away with a T-shirt, then you have to pay for it out of your pocket."

On Super Bowl Sunday, Ross said, his crew will probably have to be at the Georgia Dome by 10 a.m. and won't leave until around midnight.

While he's at the Super Bowl, the VCR in his Cape Girardeau home will be recording the big game.

Even so, Ross said he doubts he'll watch the game when he returns home. After all, he said, he'll know the score.