HOUSTON, 28 January 2004 — Houston, we have a party.

After a week on the launch pad, Super Bowl XXXVIII entered its final countdown on Monday as football fans, media, celebrities and corporate America poured into this Texas metropolis that calls itself the “Space City” for a week-long orgy of hype and partying.

While Sunday’s NFL championship game between the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers provides the heartbeat for Super Bowl week, the seven days of carefully-scripted events are designed to get the blood pumping in football fans around the world.

Staged at the home of the Johnson Space Center, this year’s Super Bowl will be run with NASA-like precision from Monday evening’s lavish Olympic-style opening ceremony (a first for the event) to Sunday’s fireworks finale.

From their steaks to their 10-gallon hats, they like things big in Texas, making Houston the perfect fit for the Super Bowl.

Last year’s game was the most-watched event in US television history but its appeal spread far beyond American borders, illustrated by the fact more than one million viewers in Britain stayed up into the early hours to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Oakland Raiders.

This Sunday’s game will be broadcast in more than 230 countries, reaching a potential audience of 800 million with on-site television crews from China, Russia, France and Germany.

It is those massive audience numbers that allow US networks to command more than $2 million for a 30-second commercial, and has a who’s who of corporate America clamoring to have their name attached to anything Super Bowl.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind event reaching everybody, men, women, children, pets,” Jon Mandel of Mediacom told reporters. “If you’re trying to stand out, it’s the place to be.” It is that cache that permitted the NFL to turn down U2 frontman Bono’s offer to sing during the halftime show, opting instead to go with a line-up that includes Janet Jackson, Beyonce Knowles, P Diddy, Kid Rock and Aerosmith.

With two weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, the party has been slow to take hold. But by the weekend Houston’s airports will be jammed with private jets as entertainment, corporate and political elite descend on the city for business and pleasure.

Cadillac, the official car of the Super Bowl, will fly in its top 200 dealers for a week of events hosted by a celebrity line-up that includes the newest “It” girl, heiress Paris Hilton.

Girls Gone Wild, MTV and Playboy parties have long been Super Bowl favorites but this year’s hot ticket is to Maxim Magazine’s “Circus Maximus” bash at an undisclosed ranch outside Houston.

With almost all of the 72,000 tickets for Sunday’s game earmarked for out-of-towners and corporate hospitality, Super Bowl ground zero for the average fan will be the NFL Experience, an 800,000 square-foot theme park jammed with 50 interactive elements designed to attract families. The NFL has also made sure its showcase event has become more than a reason to party.