Cities Not Seeing Great Economic Boom From Super Bowl XLV
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - For all the glamour and attendance a Super Bowl brings, it is not the cash jackpot some may imagine. Despite having the game and many of the events around it, The City of Arlington might only make just more than $1 million.
Much of the liquor, hotel and sales tax Arlington expects to collect is spent before fans leave town for things like police overtime.
"What we will end up doing is incurring those costs as part of our normal payment process and then we will go through a reimbursement process with the host committee and the state comptroller," said Arlington Deputy City Mager Trey Yelverton.
While the cities of North Texas may physically host the Super Bowl and its fans, technically the North Texas Super Bowl Committee is the official host. The committee is responsible for ensuring all of the conditions it promised to the NFL are met.
Right now, the cites are spending a lot of money on things like security, but it is the Committee that controls the purse strings. Eventually it and the Texas Comptroller's office will pay the cities back in a complicated process of tax and other revenue collection and distribution. But for now, the cities are like contractors, much like businesses paying up front to prepare for the game.
Daniel McDonough owns Quick Limousines and has booked his fleet for the weekend of the game. But he's paying to have 10 more vehicles on standby.
"Cost-wise, that's coming out of our pocket," McDonough said. "But we're gonna gamble that the fans of Green Bay and Pittsburgh will come through for us."
Alliance Bus Charters turned away its normal local clients, even though travel agents hadn't guaranteed they could find higher paying Super Bowl fans.
"I was going to be stuck with a whole lot of buses if the brokers didn't come through," said Alliance President Rick Bastow. The buses were booked and he will make money.
Arlington will make money on things like permits for construction and the convention center. But most cities and businesses won't clean up financially, but just have a nice payday.
"We'll spend about 2/3 on the event and we'll be keeping the other 1/3 for the benefit of our citizens," Yelverton said of the tax revenues the game would bring in.
Here's what the Texas Comptroller's office estimates some of the cities in North Texas will earn as a part of the $8.5 million increase the Super Bowl is expected to bring in new, one time city tax revenues.
Arlington: $1,070,235
Dallas: $4,564,550
Fort Worth: $1,344,450
Irving: $329,658
But the cities say what they aren't making in money they are more than making up for in exposure.
