Arizona, Home Of The 2023 Super Bowl LVII

It is an event unlike any other.  The Super Bowl is annually the most-watched television program in the United States, attracting more than 160 million viewers.  It will be carried in 180 countries and in 25 languages.  These numbers are simply incredible.

The 2023 Super Bowl will undoubtedly have a “super” economic impact in Arizona.  One researcher, Anthony Evans, from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, estimated that the last Super Bowl in Arizona, held in 2015, had a gross economic impact of $719.4 million on Phoenix and neighboring cities in less than two weeks.  The megaevent attracted more than 120,000 out-of-state visitors just for the game.  Evans also found that state and local governments pulled in over $26 million in additional taxes from hotel stays, car rentals, and other forms of spending.  Earlier this week, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs verified what many Arizonans believe to be true when she said, “Whoever takes the Lombardi Trophy — Arizona is going to come out on top.”

The Super Bowl’s positive economic impacts are well-documented.  In 2020 when the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs dueled in Miami, Florida, the Super Bowl Host Committee and Miami Beach commissions reported that the Super Bowl brought in over 4,500 new jobs to the area and had a total economic impact of $571 million.

With all that, there are some who are more dubious about the Super Bowl’s economic impacts on a region.  Another economist, Victor Matheson, has said that the true economic impact is actually a fraction of what the NFL and host cities tout.  In fact, the financial impact is more along the lines of $30 million to $130 million.  Why?  The lower estimates are based on the array of costs a host city will incur, including infrastructure update costs, construction costs of hotel rooms, transportation, and security for the NFL and associated parties, policing, security, and emergency services for all visitors and residents.    
Though there is no unanimous sentiment about the financial implications of hosting a Super Bowl among economic pundits, no one can disagree that the light will be shining bright on the Valley of the Sun as the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles duke it out for NFL supremacy.