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Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli is shown at a Super Bowl-related press conference last month.

(Reena Rose Sibayan/Jersey Journal )

The opening of the letter from the small-town mayor to the big-league commissioner had a David & Goliath tone to it, but with a New Jersey zing.

In it, Mike Gonnelli of Secaucus, introduces himself to NFL boss Roger Goodell as mayor of "one of the towns contiguous to the Borough of East Rutherford, the host of this year’s Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium."

It’s a good line, but not without purpose.

Same with his signature line, in which he identifies himself as "Mayor and Ex-Chief of the Secaucus Volunteer Fire Department."

Remember that word, volunteer.

The letter, obtained by The Star-Ledger, asks the NFL, a nonprofit corporation that generates almost $10 billion a year in revenue, to "make the Town whole" over $30,000 worth of contracts the town says were reneged on. Gonnelli said the NFL agreed to use Secaucus High School as the staging area for the halftime show. The town also offered a parking lot (referred to in correspondence as the Dinosaur Lot) for 500 to 600 cars to be used by participants in the show.

In an email response, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the contract was not with the NFL, but its halftime show company, Touchdown Entertainment, and it was not enforced because "the city changed agreed-upon plans at the last minute regarding parking that would have forced the workers and several thousand of the participants (mainly teenagers) to use a satellite lot."

Gonnelli says the town did change the plan, but the company agreed to the satellite site. Still, on Jan. 24, 10 days before the game, the town received an email from Arianne Shean Wert, an associate producer with Touchdown, that said:

"We have found an alternative location to Secaucus High School for our Game Day Operations. We no longer need to utilize the Dinosaur Lot on Feb 2. Thank you for all your assistance."

And that was that.

Except that Gonnelli was ticked. So he’s asking for, as we say in North Jersey, a little something.

"We spent $10,000 in overtime the day of the game alone for our emergency people," he said. "All the money they make from the game …"

How do we count the ways? The $4 million per 30-second commercial spot. The some-$39 million from the sale of 109 game-day luxury boxes at some-$400,000 a piece. The $120 million, give or take, from the rest of the live gate, and that’s face value. Throw in parking passes, merchandise, concessions (those $14 bottles of Bud Light) ...

And a little perspective is in order.

For instance, "host city" East Rutherford’s all-volunteer fire department was at MetLife Stadium, en masse, the day of the game, waiting for a disaster to happen. It was part of the bid agreement that local departments provide police and fire protection at the site … at no expense to the NFL.

"So a few weeks before the game, our guys threw a fundraiser so they could feed the out-of-town volunteer firemen who came to our firehouses to watch our town," said James Cassella, the East Rutherford mayor. "I think the target was $3,500, but they fell a little short."

East Rutherford also spent $40,121 on police training and protection for game day and the year leading up to the game, including sending to two, six-man teams to other Super Bowl sites. But that’s chump change: less than one-third of one-second of a Super Bowl commercial.

The Secaucus letter asks for $25,000 — $20,000 for the schools, some of which was spent preparing the high school and lots for the event, and a $5,000 donation to the volunteer fire department, which provided protection for the Secaucus train station, and two major bus-to-game lots.

"The Town intended to donate ($5,000) to our Volunteer Fire Department for … equipment, supplies and other needs, as a way of saying ‘thank you’ for the time spent in preparation for and during the Super Bowl," Gonnelli wrote.

McCarthy said Goodell has not yet seen the letter.

Cassella said he, too, might write and ask for a donation.

"They’re a non-profit. It could be another tax write-off for them," he said.