It’s pretty hard to get away from all the gloom-and-doom economic news that’s swirling this week.

Consumer confidence is at low ebb, and mass job cuts are spreading, with some 75,000 workers eliminated by companies such as Caterpillar, Home Depot and Sprint Nextel.

If there is one thing that can help us forget our troubles, it’s the big game that will take place Sunday in Florida between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Yes, this is Super Bowl Week, and along with the throngs of people who are descending on Tampa to attend the many football-related events, there are also a number of “contingent workers” who think this is a good week to be in Tampa too.

Yes, contingent workers in the form of exotic dancers, aka strippers, from all over the country are descending on Tampa because “there are, by one count, 43 strip clubs in the Tampa metropolitan area—one for each Super Bowl,” according to an Associated Press story published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And, it added, “the week of Super Bowl XLIII is to Tampa’s naughty nightlife what Black Friday is to America’s shopping malls.”

“ ‘Tampa has a reputation for having the most strip clubs and the most girls who are a lot of fun,’ says a 25-year-old exotic dancer named Claudia, who left her usual gig in Las Vegas,” the AP reports, “to work the Super Bowl week here. (She asked that her last name not be used to save her family any embarrassment.)”

Here’s what caught my eye in this story: “Claudia says she’s worked four previous Super Bowls and expects to make as much as $2,000 a day performing … Most clubs treat the dancers as independent contractors who pay a flat fee to the house and keep the rest … The clubs have been busy auditioning more dancers and upgrading their interiors. Some will stay open 24 hours.”

I’m not a strip club aficionado, but $2,000 a day sounds like pretty good money to me, especially for contingent labor. And although some may find it surprising that Tampa is such a hotbed of strip clubs, I’m not. I used to work for a magazine company (a large publisher of pet and animal titles) that always sent a large group of employees to an annual trade show that was held there. And the first thing I heard from the sales staff (mainly the New York-based guys) when I joined the company was, “Just wait until we get to Tampa!”

Apparently, the sales guys loved Tampa because of the quality (not their exact description, of course) of the strip clubs there. One club apparently towered over all others. That club (and I’m not making this up) is the Mons Venus, described in the Associated Press story as “a joint that is listed among the best strip clubs in the world by users of a Web site called The Ultimate Strip Club List.”

I never attended any of the after-hours get-togethers the sales staff had at the Mons Venus, or at any other clubs in the Tampa Bay area, but these guys had a trained eye and they clearly appreciated the job the “contingent workforce” performed at these establishments.

It all goes to show you: Even in a down economy, when lots of people are out of work and the job prospects are grim, there are always economic sectors that experience an upturn. “ ‘Based on what we did last Super Bowl (in 2001), the numbers will quadruple during (this) weekend,’ ” said Nick Polefrone, general manager of 2001 Odyssey, a landmark club known for the spaceship-shaped VIP room rising from the top of the building.”

Yes, Sunday’s Super Bowl will be time for many of us to get away for a few hours and forget our troubles, but it’s also time for some uniquely qualified and experienced contingent workers to make some big money and profit from the excesses of the week in Tampa. And maybe that’s just one of the many things we need to help get our economy going again.

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