Super Bowl 57’s economic impact: $1.3B
The Kansas City Chiefs may have earned the trophy, but Arizona leaders and Super Bowl Host Committee officials touted Arizona as a major winner from Super Bowl 57.
Hosting the game brought about $1.3 billion in economic impact to Arizona, according to research revealed Wednesday.
According to research from the L. William Seidman Research Institute at Arizona State University, about $460 million was in wages paid to employees and about $726 million was added to the state’s economy.
Jay Perry, CEO of the Super Bowl Host Committee, called the event and the economic impact an “unprecedented success.” According to research from the last time Arizona hosted the Super Bowl in 2015, the game generated $719 million worth of economic activity across the region.
David Rousseau, board chair for the Super Bowl Host Committee, said the goal of hosting an event like the Super Bowl is always two-pronged: providing immediate economic impact from the “tsunami” of activity surrounding the game and creating a lasting impact from continued investment.
103,000 out-of-state visitors
Lisa Urias, CEO and executive deputy director of the Arizona Office of Tourism, said of the 103,000 out-of-state visitors who came to Arizona during that time, about 42,000 came to various festivities without going to the game.
The increase in tourism brought about $221 million in direct spending, about $91 million of which went to hotels. Hotels were at about 90% occupancy around the time of the game, Urias said.
Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill said the 2023 Business Connect program, which aimed to create opportunities for minority, women, LGBTQ+, and veteran-owned businesses led to $11.5 million worth of business opportunities and 246 contracts for participating businesses.
Some businesses that participated are also getting contracts to work at the 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas, Bidwill said.
CEO Forum touted for business expansion
Bidwill also touted the CEO Forum, which is a business recruiting tactic to connect high-level executives with local business advocates and politicians, including Gov. Katie Hobbs, to pitch Arizona as a landing spot for business expansion or relocation. He pointed to the 2015 CEO Forum, which resulted in 20 business expansions in Arizona, including luxury electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors.
The CEO Forum was one of the business recruiting tactics that was mentioned in an Arizona Auditor General report as a potential risk of fraud and waste of public money because it lacked documentation that companies were verified and met requirements. According to the report, the Arizona Commerce Authority, the economic development advocacy agency for the state, has spent $2.4 million on five private CEO Forum events since 2018, including the one for the 2023 Super Bowl.
Bidwill said
Wednesday’s presentation that to participate in the forum, companies were targeted because they were considering West Coast expansion. The companies hosted were determined to be among the most likely to be seriously looking at Arizona for their next project or another project on the horizon.
“We aren’t taking a shotgun approach,” he said. “We vetted all these folks. We want to be fishing where the fish are, so to speak.”
Bidwill said the benefit from the forum may not be immediate but could result in a company expanding to Arizona in its future growth.
“We have gotten better at targeting those companies,” he said.
According to the Auditor General report, 23 of the 118 companies that had hosted CEO Forum events between 2018 and 2023 made nonbinding commitments to make investments and create jobs in Arizona. Those numbers do not include the 2015 Super Bowl CEO Forum, which Bidwill said resulted in 20 companies making investments.
Hobbs said the CEO Forum is “an important tool to use to attract economic development to our state,” adding that it is one of the ways the state can outline the benefits of expanding its business to Arizona.
“We took advantage of an opportunity we had on having the Super Bowl here,” she said.