By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell recently visited Las Vegas, he was frequently asked, “When is a Super Bowl coming to Las Vegas?”
And Goodell’s default response: “Let’s get through the Draft (in Las Vegas in April) and we’ll talk Super Bowl.”
But Goodell did offer a juicy verbal nugget about the prospect of a Super Bowl in Las Vegas when chatting at an event held by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce in January: “Super Bowl brings an economic impact of approximately $500 million plus and we believe Vegas has the potential to blow that out of the water.”
The Las Vegas chamber ran with that Goodell quote, posting this item on social media:
How do sports leagues and their event promoters come up with these economic impact numbers? LVSportsBiz.com asked Brian McCarthy, the NFL vice president of communications, how Goodell came up with the $500 million economic impact comment to the Las Vegas chamber. And LVSportsBiz.com also asked two sports economists — Victor Matheson at Holy Cross and Roger Noll at Stanford — to comment about Goodell’s observation that a Super Bowl delivers $500 million of economic impact.
Las Vegas is such an intriguing market on Super Bowl weekend because more than 300,000 visitors already come to the Vegas market for the Super Bowl. Let’s say they spend $1,000 per visitor on Super Bowl weekend. That means there’s already $300 million being spent on Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas without the big game even being staged here. That’s why the general manager of a brand name hotel-casino in Las Vegas told LVSportsBiz.com that Las Vegas has to study the pros and cons of hosting a Super Bowl to determine whether it’s worth the investment. One issue to analyze: if the NFL names Las Vegas as a city to host a Super Bowl, how many Super Bowl visitors in Las Vegas that year would simply be displacing visitors who would be here anyway for Super Bowl weekend?
Here are six economic spending reports supplied by the NFL’s McCarthy, followed by Matheson and Noll responding to the NFL commissioner’s $500 million economic impact comment.
Super Bowl 52 in Minneapolis on Feb. 4, 2018. Consultant Rockport Analytics said gross spending eclipsed the $450 million level. From that report:
Super Bowl 51 in Houston on Feb. 5, 2017. The Houston Super Bowl Host Committee hired Rockport Analytics, which said this Super Bowl “brought in an incremental $347 million of new spending to Greater Houston.”
Super Bowl 47 in New Orleans on Feb. 3, 2013. A University of New Orleans study said this Super Bowl generated $480 million in “net impact on the region.”
Super Bowl 42 in Glendale, AZ on Feb. 3, 2008. W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University measured this Super Bowl’s economic impact, using students in the Sports Business MBA program who found $500.6 million in direct and indirect spending by visitors and organizations who came to Arizona for the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl 49 in February 2015 and the 2015 Pro Bowl in Arizona also produced a gross economic impact of $719.4 million in the region, according to the Seidman Research Institute at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. The report was commissioned by the Arizona Commerce Authority in partnership with the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee and focused on the nine-day period from Jan. 24-Feb. 1, 2015, which coincided with the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl played at University of Phoenix Stadium on Jan. 25 and Feb. 1, respectively.
Super Bowl 41 at Dolphin Stadium on Feb. 4, 2007. The Sport Management Research Institute of West Palm Beach, Florida said this Super Bowl created $463 million in economic impact in South Florida. Highlights here:
Responding to Goodell’s statement that the Super Bowl economic impact is about $500 million for a host city is Holy Cross’ Matheson, who does about 100 media interviews a year on the topic, and Noll, a sports economist who often publicly discusses economic impacts of sports in the media.
Matheson: “Goodell has a vested interest in convincing Las Vegas that the Super Bowl will bring record profits to the city because Goodell is going to personally ask for somewhere between $20 million and $50 million in handouts from the city in exchange for the rights to host the game. There was a bid book from the Minneapolis Super Bowl leaked a couple of years ago (and it is still online if you do a quick search) that contained the phrase “at no cost to the NFL” roughly 100 times. They are going to ask for huge tax exemptions, free stadium space, free parking lots, free hotels, free convention space, etc., all paid by the local host committee (which often includes local government).
There’s excitement in the public talk that Las Vegas might want to host the 2025 Super Bowl. But Goodell offered some sound advice: let’s get through the NFL Draft in Las Vegas from April 23-25.
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