By Keysha Hogan
While you pine away every season reading statistics, listening to your favorite analysts, and ordering expanded cable packages, the National Football League sits back in quiet comfort knowing that you are hooked. The three goals of any business are to generate visibility, opportunities and cash flow. And at this point they could pit the worst teams of the NFC and AFC against each other just for the spectacle and collectively we would declare it a second tier national holiday.
But exactly how much cash exchanges hands in preparation and on the evening of the most holy night of football? Allow us to break down the numbers on how this annual tradition provides a worldwide surge to the economy.
The Local Boom
In 2013, New Orleans enjoyed a whopping $480 million in increased spending during the Super Bowl. This spending came in many forms; more than 5,000 temporary full-time and part-time jobs were created, millions were spent on infrastructure improvements and hotels, restaurants and stores invested private money to make their locations a desirable tourist spot.
If you remember, New Orleans had a good break by enjoying a bit of good weather that fateful Sunday. When the nation’s attention turned to Dallas back in 2011 for Super Bowl XLV things went a bit differently. It was estimated that $600 million would be pumped in the DFW economy but after the icemageddon rolled in, the city saw only about a $200 million increase in spending.
Why does our sad Super Bowl history matter now? Because thankfully we had a dome. MetLife Stadium in New Jersey doesn’t and if another polar vortex sweeps through this will definitely affect everyone’s bottom line. The 82,000 ticket holders who spent an average of $3,380/seat may brave the weather until we get into hypothermia territory. The view from local bars and hotels isn’t the best, but it is warm.
First & Second Screens
Each year retail and marketing groups try to estimate where all the hard earned dollars will end up. About seven million of you are planning to purchase a television for the big game. Struggling retailers like Best Buy will be cutting prices to lure you in just in time for kickoff. And once that new TV is nestled in your living rooms the real cash bonanza will be on full display.
This year’s ad space went for $4 million/30-second spot. During the game the NFL limits the networks to around 65 total ads, which comes out to about 32 1/2 minutes worth of time costing about $260 million. This year, crowd favorite Stephen Colbert will star in a few pistachio commercials, and his fee isn’t a drop in the bucket either. Marketing and advertising firms, production studios, and talent stand to make a killing.
Fox had sold out of ad space around Thanksgiving, but since then they’ve been counting on many of you having a short attention span. Nielsen recently concluded that nearly 80 percent of you use a tablet or smartphone to enhance your viewing. So, online ad space within related apps and streaming video are going for a price in the high six to low seven figures.
Eat, Eat, Eat
We don’t want to cause a riot, but our country is currently under a Velveeta cheese shortage. And each day as we approach Super Bowl Sunday the odds of your party running out of queso increases. The night of the big game currently ranks number 2, behind Thanksgiving, for “Heavy Food Consumption Rank.” #Murica
Everyone in the food chain (pun intended), sees a substantial uptick in profits on the weekend of the game. Roughly 49 million cases of beer, 53.5 million pounds of avocados, and between 90 million and 1 billion chicken wings will be scarfed down on sofas across the country. Nutritionists can’t even seem to hold their tongues about the 27 billion calories we’ll be munching on. 7-11 even reports that there is a 20 percent
increase in antacid sales on the Monday after the game.
So, once you account for fans dropping about $100 for a jersey or a couple of hundred on a new recliner you can easily see how the Super Bowl may be the lifeblood that gets our economy back on track after the holiday season. It’s estimated that 75 percent of the country will watch the game, and spend around $69/person to party in style. And after the few tough years we’ve all had, all we can say is…Game on!
