The economic impact of the Super Bowl is met with skepticism from economists

See Las Vegas hopes to hit the jackpot with the Super Bowl by Alicia Wallace of CNN. Excerpts:

"Las Vegas says it expects a “conservative” economic impact of around $600 million, and is looking to cement itself in the rotation for future Super Bowls and other major sports events."

"Otherworldly numbers like $600 million are often met with skepticism from economists, Frank Stephenson included.

“I think you’ll get more money flowing in this weekend than you would, say, a weekend ago or a weekend from now or the same weekend last year,” he said. “But the dramatic numbers that folks like to throw out are, I think, somewhat exaggerated.”

Stephenson is a professor of economics at Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia, and specializes in sports economics and public policy. In 2021, he published a research paper in the Journal of Sports Economics on how Super Bowls affect tourism in their host city.

Stephenson’s bread-and-butter is analyzing hotel occupancy data to get a sense as to whether the events put more heads in beds than what’s typically seen.

This time of year, Las Vegas is typically one of the highest occupancy cities in the country. Last February, the city averaged a 78.1% occupancy rate, which trailed just a few other cities, he said, citing STR data. And for the week that ended on January 27 of this year, Las Vegas’ occupancy rate was 83.4%, STR data showed.

“Las Vegas has a lot of people going there for Super Bowl weekend anyway,” Stephenson said. “My sense, and this is what I’ve seen in some of the work I’ve done, is that a lot of the visitors that go will simply displace other people who would have been there.”"

"LVCVA Hill agrees. [Steve Hill, chief executive officer and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority]

“We’re basically full when the Super Bowl is in a different city, so it’s not added visitation at any real level,” Hill said."

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