Will the Super Bowl in 2019 be a winner?
You have to wonder is it worth it — being named a Super Bowl city, that is? According to bid documents acquired by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records filing, the NFL’s business model seems to resemble FIFA’s play-for-pay model. There is a difference of course — but the end result seems to be about the same. The NFL gets paid and the cities get their game and everyone else gets? Well, you know what they get, or do we?
In February 2019 Atlanta will host the “Big Game” at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which, by the way, will cost the league nothing. Each team will live rent free for eight nights while in Atlanta and the league will also get free use of 150 standard rooms plus two “Presidential” suites and five other suites. Guards for the team hotels and police escorts for team owners are gratis, too.
The league also gets 10,000 parking spaces the day of the game and guess who keeps the revenue? That should come as no surprise because the NFL keeps all the money from ticket sales, too. Even the host committee is required to buy — at face value —750 tickets.
According to the documents, Atlanta went overboard and threw in some things the league didn’t ask for, such as $2 million to help the league with expenses and another $1 million to “complement” state and city efforts in the event of bad weather. The host committee will also throw a party for 2,000 media members and provide team owners with “VIP private airport accommodations.” All that for a paltry $46 million. What a deal.
And here’s the part that should gall taxpayers. The NFL won’t pay a dime in sales tax thanks to the Georgia General Assembly passing a sales-tax exemption for Super Bowl tickets last session.
What’s the return? Estimates of economic activity are all over the map, from $30 million to well over $700 million. A Fox News Business story said a host “committee-commissioned June 2015 study by business experts at Arizona State University found the game (Super Bowl XLIX) produced an economic impact of roughly $719 million for the greater Phoenix area.”
Will Atlanta and the state see such economic activity? Most fans would trade the Super Bowl they’ll never be able to attend in their home state for an NFL team in Atlanta with a consistently winning record that might actually play in a Super Bowl.
This story was originally published June 8, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Will the Super Bowl in 2019 be a winner?."