Arizona saw the largest economic impact of any special event held after the Super Bowl was hosted in Glendale this year.
More than 100,000 people came from out-of-state for Super Bowl LVII.
They all needed a place to stay, a few good places to eat and there was no shortage of things for them to do - all of which can cost a pretty penny.
“The Tsunami seek for the Super Bowl is $1.3 billion,” said SRP’s David Rousseau with the Super Bowl Host Committee.
The ASU Business School released information from their independent study on the big game’s big economic impact. They discovered more than $726.1 million was contributed to Arizona’s gross domestic product.
Visitors of our state spent over $220 Million, with only 60% of them having tickets to the game.
The study measured that more than 10,000 annual jobs were created because of hosting the big game. That led to a $494.1 million contribution to labor income in Arizona.
Cardinals’ owner Michael Bidwill said, "Arizona’s Super Bowl was the most successful in the history of Super Bowls."
“What’s that return on that investment? We’re talking about that return today, it’s enormous. This is a big win for our state, there are 49 other states that would love to be doing what we’re doing,” said Bidwill.
Part of that investment gave more than 50 charitable organizations new opportunities by dividing up over $2 million.
“This is something they’ve left a real legacy,” said Marcia Meyer with the Be Kind People Project. The non-profit that brings programming into low-income schools to teach life’s most valuable lessons through performance.
They received one of the Super Bowl’s bigger grants of $200,000 allowing them to open a downtown community education center.
”It changed the trajectory and the scale of what we’re trying to do, we would have pursued this route regardless, it added fuel to it, it changed the outcome and the lives and people we can reach,” said JC Thompson, COO of the Be Kind People Project.
The big game atmosphere isn’t over. While it’s no Super Bowl, Arizona will host the Men’s NCAA Final Four in April 2024.
