The Super Bowl, American football’s biggest event, is scheduled to take place on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots.
This major sporting event is set to energize fans in both cities, with thousands flocking to the San Francisco Bay Area this year. Even those who can’t travel can expect to spend a lot of money on food, drinks, and viewing parties across the United States.
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Historically, the Super Bowl has been a huge economic boon for the host city. For the Bay Area, this event is part of a trio of major sports that boost the local economy.
Local excitement?
In 2024, the Bay Area Host Committee commissioned a report projecting the economic impact of hosting the 2025 NBA All-Star Game, 2026 Super Bowl, and FIFA World Cup in the region. The report estimates Sunday’s game alone will generate between $370 million and $630 million in economic output for the Bay Area.
Last year’s Super Bowl was held in New Orleans, Louisiana. The event drew 115,000 visitors and spent $658 million in the city, state officials reported.
For consumers, Bank of America estimates that spending near stadiums will jump 77%. The study, which analyzed spending patterns at Super Bowl games from 2017 to 2025, found spending spiked on game day in ZIP codes closest to the stadium, with food and parking prices seeing the biggest increases.
There are city-specific costs for hosting games.
In the case of Santa Clara, the production volume is small compared to the predicted production. Last year, the city was projected to cost $6.3 million, including training personnel to handle the influx of tourists and other logistics needs. However, other games had much higher municipal costs. When Atlanta hosted the Super Bowl in 2019, it cost the city an estimated $46 million.
In 2023, the day after the game in Glendale, Arizona, outside Phoenix, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was the busiest in its history, with more than 200,000 passengers passing through the airport. The airport is home to American Airlines, and low-cost airlines Southwest Airlines and Frontier maintain a large presence.
Other cities are using major sporting events to launch major infrastructure projects. In 2004, ahead of the Super Bowl in Houston, Texas, the city’s transit agency, Metro, opened its first light rail line just one month before the game. The line is one of three currently running from downtown Houston to the city’s football stadium.
Prior to its inauguration, Houston was the only major U.S. city without a rail network.
But not all infrastructure projects have paid off. Las Vegas built Allegiant Stadium in the Paradise suburb when it acquired the Raiders football team from Oakland during the 2020 season. One year later, in 2021, Las Vegas was in the running to host the 2024 Super Bowl. The stadium cost $1.9 billion to build. Nearly $750 million came from hotel taxes, but local taxpayers covered the rest.
“The economic benefits are relatively short-term, not just in duration, but in scope. They’re limited to certain industries and certain locations,” Michael Edwards, a sports management professor at North Carolina State University, told Al Jazeera.
“The NFL (National Football League) often uses the Super Bowl as a carrot to encourage cities to invest tax dollars in new stadiums,” Edwards said. “We’re seeing that dynamic play out in places like Chicago and Cleveland, where officials are considering domed stadiums. Part of that push is almost certainly driven by the possibility of hosting a Super Bowl, which the league is dangling as an incentive.”
food expenses
For those who can’t go to the games themselves, the number of Americans who watch games at bars and restaurants, or throw money at watch parties, continues to surge.
The National Retail Federation, which has tracked Super Bowl spending for the past 10 years, predicts Americans will spend a record $20.2 billion ($94.77 per person) on the big game, 79% of which will be spent on groceries.
Spending has soared since 2021, when consumers spent $13.9 billion, or $74.55 per person. However, that was down from $17.2 billion in 2020, when the Super Bowl was held about a month before the coronavirus lockdown began in the United States.
For those hosting a Super Bowl watching party at home, stocking up on typical game-day food will likely cost more than last year. Wells Fargo estimates that inviting 10 people will cost about $140 per person, up from $138 last year.
Chicken wings, a staple for soccer fans, are a bright spot for your wallet. Prices are down 2.8% compared to this time last year. Prices for potato chips were flat, but prices for dips like salsa rose 1.7%.
For those opting for a veggie platter, healthier options are becoming more expensive as well. Cherry tomatoes rose 2%, celery rose 2.6%, and broccoli and cauliflower both rose 4%. Beer prices are also on the rise, increasing by 1.3% from the previous year.
Advertising hit record
The Super Bowl is broadcast on NBC, and the network is increasing its ad spend for the big game. NBC sold out its Super Bowl ad space in September at a record average price of $10 million for a 30-second spot. That’s up from an average of $8 million last year, when the game aired on Fox.
NBC also benefits from a cluster of sporting events in February that boost advertising revenue, such as the Winter Olympics. The opening ceremony will be held on Friday and will run until February 22nd. NBC has exclusive broadcast rights to the Olympics in the United States.
“With the return of the Olympic movement, the strongest sports upfront in history, an early sellout of Super Bowl LX, and the NBA’s remarkable resurgence, NBCUniversal is solidifying its position as a sports powerhouse and our brand is gaining traction,” Mark Marshall, chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, said in a release.
The last time the Games were held in the same year, in 2024, these two events were the most-watched events on linear television.
On Wall Street, parent company Comcast’s stock has soared more than 4% over the past five days due to upcoming sporting events scheduled to be broadcast on NBC.
