Padding Required: Assessing the Economic Impact of the Super Bowl

Abstract

Abstract Civic boosters generally have estimated the Super Bowl to have an impact of $300 to $400 million on a host city's economy. The National Football League has used the promise of an economic windfall to convince skeptical cities that investments in new stadiums for their teams in exchange for the right to host the event makes economic sense. Evidence from host cities from 1970–2001 indicates the Super Bowl contributes approximately one-quarter of what the boosters have promised and that the game could not have contributed by any reasonable standard of statistical significance, more than $300 million to host economies.