The Economic Impact Numbers Seem Not To Make Any Sense.
The Los Angeles Super Bowl Host Committee has put out a 60-page report proclaiming that an Inglewood, California-based Super Bowl in February of 2022 is going to be an economic windfall that could bring the Los Angeles region up to $477 million. Some of that money though is invisible because the economists who worked on the report claim that the television exposure that a Super Bowl can produce is worth $106.5 million in publicity for LA. You cannot spend publicity money. It does not exist. You cannot pay bills or lower taxes with money that exists only on paper. Another piece of the report is job creation. Super Bowl activities last about two weeks. Yet the economists claim that the 2022 Super Bowl will create somewhere between 2,200 and 4,700 jobs. No mention of how many of those jobs created will be minimum wage positions. The committee claims that somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 people will be coming to LA for three-or-four-day visits because of the Super Bowl. It generally seems the figures were pulled out of a hat. There has never been a real audit of a mega sports event by elected officials. The elected officials really don’t want to know the real economic impact.
Some Super Bowl goers do spend money at hotels and motels and car rental agencies but if those places are not locally owned, Super Bowl rate hikes at those places don’t stay in the host city rather the money goes back to a home office elsewhere. Same with restaurants. Sure, some people, taxi drivers, people who clean hotel/motel rooms, parking lot attendants, waiters and waitresses might get more tip money but a good chunk of Super Bowl spending doesn’t go to non-hospitality businesses. The NFL sells a Super Bowl with economic windfall promises but there is no proof that really happens.
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