NFL owners may abandon local customers in a big contest.
There is a notion floating around that the National Football League’s 31 owners and the Green Bay Packers Board of Directors might want to move the American Football Conference Championship Game and the National Football Conference Championship game to a neutral site. Probably a dome or a warm weather city where people can go see a football game and spend a weekend. Just like the Super Bowl. The NFL will get to charge big prices for the game and then tell people just how much of an economic impact the league championship game is to the city that got the game. The city would, of course, have to bid on the game and make financial guarantees which would be very favorable to the NFL. How about the people back home who go to games and want to see their team on their home field try to advance to the Super Bowl? No problem, if they can afford the ticket price, the transportation cost, the hotel or motel room cost and the restaurant cost and the car rental cost, those fans will make the trip and if the price is a little too expensive, there is always the TV screen at home or at a local bar.
As far as the economic impact goes. The Super Bowl could be worth $300 or 400 million to a community according to the NFL. But is it really worth that much? No one knows because no one really wants to know the real impact. Not a lot of the money spent in a city for the Super Bowl stays in the city. Hotels, car rental agencies which see the spending are not headquartered in Super Bowl cities and that money goes back to a home office. Sure some people see extra tipping, bellhops, taxi drivers, wait staff but a championship game does not have a lot of economic impact.
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