Cities Compete for Super Bowl Cash

Feb. 2, 2007 — -- Nearly 150 million people worldwide will watch the Chicago Bears battle the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday in Miami for Super Bowl XLI. But for three American cities, the big game has already begun. They're fighting to host the Super Bowl in 2011.

The NFL has already awarded the locations for the next three championships -- Glendale, Ariz., Tampa, Fla., and Miami, again. But 2011's XLV is still up for grabs. The NFL franchises in Dallas, Glendale and Indianapolis are hoping to host the event, and much like the battle between the Colts and the Bears, it's a high-stakes game for the cities involved.

Much like the formal campaigns to host the Olympics every four years, cities involved in Super Bowl bidding invest a lot of time and money to lure the NFL's biggest game. They all guarantee hotel rooms and restaurants, and have been known to promise alterations to city infrastructure and stadiums to fit the NFL's specifications.

"It's pretty cutthroat," said Frank R. Nero, president and CEO of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, an economic development organization. "Each year the ante gets higher in terms of what [the NFL] wants the municipality to do."

The NFL's Brian McCarthy said each city puts together a package that includes everything the league needs -- including hotel rooms, practice facilities and the location for a media center large enough to contain the 3,500 reporters who descend on the city.

It's a lot of work, but considering the financial windfall a Super Bowl brings, it's not hard to see why cities are willing to do just about anything to get the game. Super Bowls are known to create a multimillion-dollar boon for local businesses and a weeklong publicity blitz for the host city, a prospect that ensures the cities fight hard to get the game.

Detroit Businesses, Infrastructure Boosted

Fans swarming into Detroit, last year's host city, pushed hotel occupancy to 85 percent, more than doubling the typical occupancy of 40 percent during that time of the year, according to Patrick James Rishe, an economics professor and the director of Sportsimpacts, which conducted an economic impact study for the city.

The Super Bowl also spurred a rush of building activity, including new restaurants, hotels and casinos as well as infrastructure projects and waterfront development.

"The Super Bowl was a great motivator to make this happen," said Carolyn Artman, a spokeswoman for the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Everyone came together and rallied around it."

Mike O'Callaghan, executive vice president and COO of the Detroit Metro Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the city spent $15 billion in improvements during the five years before the Super Bowl. At least $13 billion would have happened anyway, but the the majority of the extra $2 billion was spent on improvements to the Central Business District and roadways.

So was it worth it?

"I think so," O'Callaghan said. "There's a new sense of vitality in the city.We have a more vibrant downtown area. There's life and excitement."

Will Miami See as Big a Boost?

Miami's tourist infrastructure is already well established, so the city hasn't seen an increase in development that other, less-trendy destinations experience in the run-up to the Super Bowl.

And Miami's hotels are not expected to see that enormous increase in occupancy witnessed in Detroit -- it's January, high season in South Florida, with or without the Super Bowl -- they will be able to charge higher rates. Still, they have seen strong demand.

The three Hyatt hotels in Miami have seen a 15 percent increase in bookings, according to Amy Patti, a company spokeswoman. The Miami Radisson has been sold out since July.

And travelers will be paying more for their rooms.

"Rates are definitely higher, but not from a gouging perspective," said Christine Brosnahan, a spokeswoman for Carlson Hotels, which owns the Radisson. "Your discounted or negotiated corporate business doesn't usually travel during the Super Bowl period, so people are paying … leisure rates."

The city's restaurants, clubs and vendors, on the other hand, will certainly benefit from the influx of fans and their spending, according to the Beacon Council's Nero.

Airlines, too, are expected to benefit from the Super Bowl. Representatives from Southwest Airlines and United Airlines said flights going into Miami are very full, and United has added four additional flights to South Florida -- one to Fort Lauderdale and three to Miami.

All told, Artman said last year's Super Bowl generated $261 million for Detroit. As for Miami, Nero said the Super Bowl is expected to bring $190 million of direct spending -- the cash that goes directly from a tourist's wallet to local businesses -- to the city and as much as $350 million in indirect spending.

Are the Estimates Inflated?

But gauging the Super Bowl's true economic impact may be slightly more complicated. Much of the information is gathered through surveys, which have their limitations -- in access and honesty. More difficult still are the computations economists use to compute their figures.

"The true impact is much smaller," Rishe said. "When locals say 'we're not seeing any of this money,' most of them -- outside the hotel, restaurant, and entertainment industries -- are right."

In popular destinations like Miami, some economists argue that the actual dollar figure must account for tourists or convention hosts who decide to avoid the city during Super Bowl week to bypass the inevitable crowds and media frenzy.

Rishe conducted the study that supplied Detroit and the NFL with the $261 million figure, but even he said that might be a bit misleading. The true impact, when accounting for economic variables and the amount of money that actually stayed in the city was closer to $125 million, he said. While both numbers are technically correct, the lower figure includes only the money that remains in the city and removes what would have been spent regardless of the Super Bowl.

Still, the Super Bowl brings piles of cash with it, even if we may never know the exact amount. And it also delivers something that may be even more valuable -- publicity.

"Everyone's talking about Miami," Nero said. "You can't buy that kind of exposure."

It's that exposure that so entices the contestants for the 2011 game. Dallas, Indianapolis and Glendale will submit their final proposals by April 1, and the NFL will make its decision decision in late May.