World Cup attendance and revenues are disappointing. That's hardly surprising. The hype and publicity and exaggerated claims create a level of expectation that's hard to support, and the inflated prices of everything from hot dogs to hotel rooms is absurd.

This kind of insistence on constantly “topping” what's come before exists with Super Bowl halftime shows, entertainment award shows (they are proliferating in number as well as production extremes), parades for any variety of causes, political rallies, and even fundraising. The more the pressure to “better” and “outdo” the past attempts as a metric of current success, the more you're prone to fall short.

No one has ever sung the Star Spangled Banner better than Whitney Houston, so stop trying to create a canonical version, and just sing the song. Tom Brady wasn't trying to be Joe Montana or Johnny Unitas, just the best quarterback he could be. Picasso was just trying to be Picasso.

They're wondering why attendance is down when a train ticket that was $15 is now $150 to get to the Meadowlands and it can cost as much as $175 to park at Gillette Stadium on Foxboro, MA for the World Cup (where it's $50 for Patriot game).

The road to excess had a lot of potholes.