Glendale spent $3.4 million to prepare for and host Super Bowl XLII in January, but a new study shows the city recouped only $1.2 million in tax revenues.
Other cities in the Phoenix area collected $11.3 million in taxes generated from Super Bowl activity, according to the study by Elliott D. Pollack& Co.
The study commissioned by the city found that non-local visitors in town for the National Football League championship game contributed $213 million to the regional economy, for a total economic impact of $369.5 million as the money was re-spent by local business and residents.
The analysis determined that just 5% of the estimated 123,500 visitors coming to the area for the game stayed in Glendale’s 1,266 hotel rooms.
Glendale officials never expected to make a profit on the game, but said the publicity of hosting the Super Bowl would bolster the city’s image.
Cision, a media-monitoring company, said Glendale was mentioned in more than 5,000 TV and radio news stories in the two weeks before the game, giving it publicity the company valued at nearly $27 million.
A three-month study by students at the Carey School of Business at Arizona State University put the game’s economic impact at $500.6 million. The ASU study, which was commissioned by the Glendale Super Bowl host committee, included spending by the NFL and its teams, which was not part of the Pollack study.
The host committee, which spent $17 million in contributions from mostly private sources, said it would ask the state to reimburse it from some of the taxes it collected as a result of the event.
Glendale is currently competing with Indianapolis and Houston to host the 2012 Super Bowl.
