The culmination of the football season is upon us, with the Super Bowl kick-off approaching this upcoming weekend. It's not secret that attendees are royally fleeced for ticket costs and hotel accommodations, but it seems the environment gets the short end of the stick during this annual event as well.

By last Friday, approximately 400 private jets had been scheduled to fly in to Phoenix for the big game, most of the planes having been booked by corporations and individuals who obviously have enough cash to avoid the slums of first class on a commercial flight.

“We’re getting booked like crazy,” said Steven M. Hankin, the chief executive of Sentient Jets, a big private-jet charter company that is booking Super Bowl weekend luxury packages. “We’re seeing a significant increase in demand for flights to Phoenix, more than we have for previous Super Bowls,” and a 50 percent increase from the event last year."

I used the CO2 calculator on Terrapass to calculate a normal flight to Phoenix departing from four major cities (including the likely departing cities for fans of the two teams actually playing in the game) and came up with the follow results:

New York
4,294 miles = 1,674 lbs CO2

Boston
4,586 miles = 1,788 lbs CO2

Los Angeles
738 miles = 472 lbs CO2

Dallas
1,730 miles = 778 lbs CO2

Now consider that's just the calculation for a commercial flight and doesn't take into consideration that the massive jet in the air holds a fraction of the passengers a commercial flight would carry. Even if everyone was coming over from L.A., the closest location I calculated, 400 jets would release almost 19,000 lbs of emissions. Ten jets arriving from New York would release almost 18,000 lbs. That doesn't even factor in a hotel stay - even just for one night - as well as transportation around the city including to and from the game.

Interestingly enough, it's the challenge of getting all of the jets in and out of Phoenix, and the traffic jam that is sure to occur, that is giving organizers the biggest headache, rather than any environmental impact of 400 private jets flying in for the party. I personally blame Tom Brady. I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm pretty sure all football-related evil in this world somehow points back to him.

» The New York Times