City’s score in Super Bowl being tallied
Though some say $350 million, the Super Bowl’s financial impact on city is yet to be determined
Mayor Sylvester Turner touts the Super Bowl as a $350 million economic boon, but the actually impact won’t be fully known until the state reports sales, hotel and entertainment tax figures next month.
Mayor Sylvester Turner this week touted the success of Houston’s Super Bowl, citing good weather, a memorable game and a nice boost to the city’s economy.
“We are looking at a (positive) balance of about $350 million in terms of what we spend in businesses and vendors, and in sales tax, the numbers are good,” he said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.
But Turner’s assessment appears premature. A pregame analysis by the host committee projected the economic impact at $350 million, but the sales, hotel and entertainment taxes that will indicate whether those projections were right won’t be reported by the state until next month.
City Hall spokeswoman Janice Evans, when asked to clarify the figures Turner referred to, offered no further details, but acknowledged the real numbers have not yet been tallied.
Meanwhile, for one business, the Super Bowl was a positive boost — but not the bonanza she hoped for.
Sherronda Scoggins runs a small floral and events business, KC Events & Florals. A few months ago, she was taking all the steps necessary to accept big orders that might come through the Super Bowl’s Business Connect program, which was set up to give local vendors a chance to land Super Bowl-related contracts.
Scoggins said she did close a year-
long deal to become the in-house florist for the Hilton Americas-Houston.
But the Super Bowl itself didn’t yield much more business. She did one event for the Business Connect program itself, got one last-minute call to provide flowers for the Minnesota host committee delegation and had one small order from the NFL for centerpieces — but the restaurant hosting the event ended up not wanting them cluttering up the tables.
“Other than that, there was not much going on,” Scoggins said.
Some of the other local florists she talked to said they didn’t get much business either, since it seemed that most of the big clients brought in vendors from whatever cities they came from.
“I’m not really sure where all the contracts went,” Scoggins said.
The Host Committee said numbers aren’t available for the number of local vendors that provided services during Super Bowl week.
Still, Scoggins isn’t complaining — gearing up for the big game was still worth it.
“It wasn’t what I expected, but just going through the Business Connect gave me some exposure to companies,” she said. “It’ll put us in a better position for longer term.”