For those of you chasing kids around baseball fields, gymnasiums and soccer pitches, the Super Bowl offers a unique view of why we lose fans and why professional sports wants to wring every last dollar out of any event.

For years I’ve complained that the World Series should offer a couple day games so kids can watch. Yes, you can let them stay up late (prime time when ad rates are huge), but I’ve fallen asleep past 1 a.m. watching post-season baseball. Most kids, the fan base of the future, were in Nod long before an Aaron Boone’s home run, won the ALCS for the Yankees a few years back. Or, as he is known in Boston, Aaron *^%&ing Boone.

It also occurs to me that professional championships are never played in season for kids. The Super Bowl is in the middle of high school basketball, wrestling and swimming seasons. While the Bears and Colts are tearing up South Beach, NCAA basketball teams are looking toward March Madness — next month. The NBA Finals may happen before the end of baseball season for most kids but not by much. And the aforementioned World Series interrupts high school and college football season.

I’m not asking professional sports to reschedule — it’s appropriate to have the last game of the season at the last possible date. I am wondering why they don’t do more to nurture young fans, kids willing to put up the roundball or skip the evening IMing their friends to watch the Super Bowl. I know this: Prince ain’t going to do it.

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My crystal ball has been cloudy all year, so I’m not picking a Super Bowl winner. I’m a Bears fan, so that works, but Peyton Manning raising that trophy would be a nice image, too. I do predict this: That the game will be one the five best Super Bowls ever — or it least it has the making of a classic. High powered offense against hard-nosed defense. I like our chances that Sunday’s game will live up to its hype and join the select few Super Bowls that have been better than the commercials that support it.