Pay To Play: Super Bowl Host Committee Wants $40 Million From LVCVA To Stage NFL’s Premier Game In Las Vegas In 2024
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
So Las Vegas, you want to play with the big boys like Los Angeles, New Orleans and Miami and host a Super Bowl?
Well, it’s going to cost you — $40 million in public dollars and another $20 million in money that will need to be raised by the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee.
The Las Vegas market is slated to host the 2024 Super Bowl, with the NFL spectacle event scheduled for Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 11, 2024.
On Tuesday, the chief executive officer of Las Vegas’s public tourism agency will ask the LVCVA (Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority) board to authorize the agency spending $40 million on hosting the Super Bowl. After all, there are concerts, entertainment, media, sponsor events and corporate hospitality to underwrite during the week leading to the Super Bowl.
You might recognize the name of Steve Hill, the LVCVA CEO/president. Hill also is a member of the Super Bowl Host Committee’s executive committee. Plus, Hill chairs the stadium authority that teamed with the Raiders on the construction of the 62,000-seat domed stadium that houses the NFL team. Southern Nevada contributed an NFL stadium subsidy record of $750 million toward building the palatial venue that is also set to host the NFL Pro Bowl all-star game in February.
Besides asking the LVCVA for $40 million for the 2024 Super Bowl, the host committee is expected to raise $20 million for a total Super Bowl host pot of $60 million. Let’s take a look at what the money will be spent on:
“Hosting Super Bowl LVIII requires a financial commitment to the NFL, as well as to numerous local businesses which will assist the Host Committee in meeting its obligations,” the LVCVA agenda item said on the $40 million request.
The NFL likes to boast about the economic spending of visitors and financial impact of a Super Bowl on a host market. And the economic impact numbers are already flying around to the tune of more than $500 million for Las Vegas.
But sports economists caution spending impact numbers are overstated.
And the Las Vegas market is especially tricky to analyze because Vegas already entertains more than 300,000 visitors on Super Bowl weekends. Multiply $2,000 per visitor for 300,000 Super Bowl visitors and you have $600 million of tourist spending in Las Vegas — without hosting the game and having to budget $60 million for host activities.
LVSportsBiz.com recently asked Jeremy Aguero, the former stadium authority consultant who now works for the Raiders as an analytics executive, what he thought would be the net spending increase with Las Vegas hosting a Super Bowl above a regular Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas.
“That is a bit difficult to determine at this point,” said Aguero, who also serves as a member of the Super Bowl Host Committee. Allegiant Travel Co. CEO Maury Gallagher chairs the host committee. Allegiant is the naming rights holder of the Raiders stadium, where the Super Bowl will be played in 25 months.
