A winner with residents
65% call event positive, and nearly half want big game to return to Bay Area
The historic Super Bowl 50 that put Santa Clara on the map, tied up streets for weeks along San Francisco’s waterfront, and ended with a game that was the third-most-watched broadcast in television history was a big hit with Bay Area residents, according to a study commissioned by the event’s local host committee.
The report from Repucom, an independent research group that specializes in sports and entertainment surveys, found that Super Bowl 50 generated a positive rating from 65 percent of Bay Area adults represented in the survey, while only 8 percent gave it a thumbs-down. And for those who actually attended one of the many events leading up to the game, the positive vote rose to 84 percent.
One of the host committee’s most publicized goals for the event — raising money for local charities and helping nonprofits build future campaigns — scored high among those polled. The majority of respondents said they believed that Super Bowl 50 increased tourism, created local business opportunities, and displayed the Bay Area’s commitment to giving back.
“I think that tells you we struck a positive nerve, especially with millennials and families, among Bay Area residents who believe it’s the responsibility of a large-scale sporting event like the Super Bowl to give back and make sure the entire community is part of it,” said Host Committee CEO and President Keith Bruce. “The
numbers spoke loud and clear that people see the Super Bowl as much more than just a game for sports fans.”
Bruce said the committee created the “50 Fund to make grants to organizations focusing on closing the opportunity gap for children, youth and their families living in low-income communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.”
Bruce added that Bay Area nonprofits received $13 million from the 50 Fund, making Super Bowl 50 easily the “most giving Super Bowl ever.”
In a gloomier, though not surprising, finding, traffic was the top issue cited by residents who said they’d experienced an inconvenience because of the Super Bowl game and events, which included the particularly onerous street closures before, during and after creation of Super Bowl City near the Ferry Building in San Francisco.
The Feb. 7 game between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers drew 71,000 fans and a TV audience of nearly 112 million people, while many more fans attended the free events in the days leading up to Super Bowl Sunday. Cities, including Santa Clara and San Jose, had to shell out money to provide services such as transportation, while the city of San Francisco spent more than $4 million out of its own coffers to provide police and transit services.
Repucom found that Super Bowl 50 ranked as the favorite major event in the Bay Area over the past year by more than half the respondents, and 45 percent of those polled said they wanted another Su- per Bowl here, which was a higher percentage than those wanting an Olympics (43 percent), an MLB AllStar Game (32 percent) or the NBA All-Star Game (31 percent).
Michael Lynch, head of Consulting for Repucom North America, said 1,380 Bay Area adults were interviewed for the survey, which took place in the days after the big game. Like Bruce, Lynch said he was struck by how much the charitable focus by the host committee had resonated with local residents.
“That importance of giving back to the community really jumped out at us,” said Lynch. “That really makes Super Bowl 50 a role model for events like this going forward.”