Aug 24,2001
Ý
SPORTS
Baseball
Basketball
Boxing
Fitness
Football
Golf
Hockey
Olympics
Outdoors
Soccer
Tennis
Wrestling

SECTIONS
Books
Culture & Politics
Humor
Media/
Ý
Entertainment
Women


About Us

Ý

FOOTBALL

Five Hundred Million Arguments For The Elimination Of The Super Bowl

Why we should scrap the Super Bowl, spectacle and all




Print story


Email story


by Neil deMause

In case you've been living under a rock -- or in the football no-man's-land of Los Angeles -- it's time once again for the yearly extravaganza known as the Super Bowl. On Sunday afternoon, an estimated 90 million people will sit down to watch ten hours of pregame, postgame, and halftime shows, commercials, and, oh yes, football, in our annual orgy of national sports obsession.

All this activity, the NFL likes to remind us, also means economic activity. Wherever you've looked in media coverage of Super Bowl XXXV (including SportsJones), there's been mention of the economic windfall that comes from hosting the game: a record $250 million for the Tampa region this year, according to the league.

Figures like this are showing up more and more often on the sports pages, usually with little explanation. A few years ago, during Michael Jordan's return from hiatus, Fortune magazine calculated that His Airness was worth a cool $10 billion a year to the U.S. economy.

What does a number like that mean? In this case, it means someone at Fortune took out a calculator and totaled up every economic exchange that was touched by MJ's blessed hand: every pair of Air Jordans sold, every pair of Hanes underwear worn, every "Space Jam" video rented. Total up all the Jordan merchandise, Jordan-endorsed products, and Jordan-linked TV contracts and you get $10 billion.

What's missing from this analysis is what economists call the "substitution effect": most people, presumably, would have watched videos and worn underwear even if Jordan hadn't been around to tell them to do so. As Chicago Sun-Times writer Richard Roeper pointed out at the time, "Heck, maybe there'd be a Zippy Pippy cologne inspired by Scottie Pippen. Who knows."

The same goes for Super Bowl economic stats. Sure, Tampa area hotels are packed to capacity for the big game, but it's not like Florida is otherwise hurting for tourists in mid-winter. When University of South Florida economist Philip Porter looked at tourism figures for past warm-weather Super Bowls, he found no discernible uptick during the week of the game. In fact, says Porter, Super Bowl tourists are often forced to book week-long hotel stays even if they are only flying in for the weekend -- meaning windfalls for the national hotel chains that jack up prices for the event, but not much for local merchants who miss out on lost sales during much of the week.

So if Super Bowl benefits for the host city are overstated, what about the costs of the game? The NFL, predictably, is silent on just how much of a public subsidy the Super Bowl gets. But if we apply the same logic (and assumption-laden bookkeeping) to the game's costs as the league does to its alleged benefits, we can quickly compile a litany of Super Bowl liabilities just as long as its assets.

The largest subsidy, of course, is for the building: no championship game takes place anymore without a state-of-the-art playground to host it. Raymond James Stadium, site of Super Bowl XXXV, was built at a cost of $168 million in public money to replace Tampa Stadium in 1998. The stadium project was propelled in part by the argument that a new stadium would help draw Super Bowls and their supposed economic benefits. It's a common argument for football teams seeking new homes: Phoenix, San Francisco, and New York are all currently considering building new football stadiums in part as a means of luring future Super Bowls.

Next page: An economic monster on the loose



Respond: sjeditor@sportsjones.com

Sign up for free SportsJones newsletters

SportsJones home page

Ý
Ý

MORE FOOTBALL

Sports Isn't What You Are ...
It's what you do. So says former NFL lineman Pat Toomay in his look at the dangerous, schizophrenic world of the modern athlete.

XFL TV
Dan McGraw, the author of "First and Last Seasons," says small screen success is the key to the new league's survival.

Super Bowl Monday
A former Cowboy remembers the day after Super Bowl VI.

XFL News & Opinion
Pro and Con -- people are talking about the upstart league. A SurfJones Special. (UPDATED DAILY)

"The Jets will win on Sunday, I guarantee it."
The greatest quotes thru the years.

Super Bowl Special
A collection of big game wit and wisdom.

The Divine Miss Jones Makes Her Super Deluxe Super Bowl Pick
The Diva spells out the future for the Ravens and Giants. (NEW!)

MORE BY NEIL DEMAUSE

The Great Ticket Crash
Neil deMause offers the "Bottom Line" on Major League ticket prices and the game's immediate future.

A-Rod's Big Score
In this edition of "The Bottom Line," Neil deMause looks at baseball, balance, and the almighty buck.

ABA 2000
In this edition of "The Bottom Line," Neil deMause looks at whether the new ABA and other upstart sports leagues have a chance in today's market.

Mr. Selig Goes to Washington
The Senate held hearings on baseball's "competitive imbalance" last week. In his latest column, Neil deMause says this might be the start of another labor fight between owners and players.

How to Win Friends & Influence Voters
Election Day wasn't just Gore vs. Bush. It was also the day voters decided on whether to build new stadiums across the country. Neil deMause reports.


SportsJones
770 N. Halsted, Suite 306, Chicago, IL 60622
(312)243-8786 sjeditor@sportsjones.com
Copyright © 2000 SportsJones, Inc. All rights reserved.