The city of Glendale just hosted the fourth Super Bowl in Arizona and the “event keeps getting bigger and bigger,” President and CEO of the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee Jay Parry said.
DEEPER DIVE: Here’s how super lucrative the Super Bowl is for Arizona
Super Bowl 57 at State Farm Stadium was another opportunity to drive economic development to the Phoenix metropolitan area.
“We had a great blueprint from the Super Bowl in 2015 and the record-breaking event that was for Arizona,” Parry said. “As we’ve looked towards 2023, the goal was how do we elevate that experience, increase the impact even further and make that experience really positive for everyone who participates.”
The opportunity to bid for the Super Bowl was led by Michael Bidwill, the principal owner, chairman and president of the Arizona Cardinals, according to Parry.
Once the NFL is open to bid, the host committee galvanizes Arizona stakeholders around that bid.
“We act as the generator of the bid,” Parry said. “We pull in the tourism community, the business community, our public sector, and our Native American tribes to prepare the bid document.” Which started back in 2018 for Super Bowl 57.
Organizers said it takes months to put together a bid and is a cohesive effort from all those entities involved. Once the bid has been awarded, the host committee puts together a professional staff that works for the stakeholders across Arizona to create a plan that will drive positive economic and community impact and also creates working relationships with the NFL.
“I have to say, the plan came together beautifully. Everything went smoothly and was a phenomenal success for Arizona and the NFL,” Parry said.
In 2015 the committee raised $28 million for Super Bowl 49, and according to Anthony Evans, a senior researcher for the L. William Seidman Research Institute at Arizona State University, estimated a gross economic impact of $720 million on the Phoenix area and an additional $26 million in taxes to state and local governments.
This year, the committee had to commit to spending $45 million. Evans at ASU said he will once again oversee this year’s Super Bowl economic analysis, but “the results are expected in May.”
The city of Glendale, Phoenix and other local governments spent millions of dollars to prepare the infrastructure and security of the entire region.
“In 2015, There was a direct new expense cost of $3.02 million for Public Safety and $346,000 direct new expenses for all other participating departments. This includes OT, equipment and supplies and contractual services such as street barricading,” Director of Communications for the city of Phoenix Dan Wilson said in an email. “The same type of information is being tracked for Super Bowl 57 and will be gathered together in a post-Super Bowl report which will be provided to Council.”
“People focus on the short-term boost to the economy associated with the Super Bowl,” Evans said. “But there is a much, much bigger impact for a host city if it is held correctly, and that is the use of a Super Bowl or any other major sporting event to come up with an economic development policy.”
Evans said the success of the Super Bowl in 2015 was used by economic policymakers to encourage other events to be relocated or enhance their operational footprint in Arizona and contributed to the return of Super Bowl 57.
“When you think about the return on investment and what our local communities committed to that, the leadership of Arizona thinks it’s well worth it,” Parry said.
“I think what the NFL has found is that Arizona is a community that has invested in an infrastructure, the highway system, the light rail system, our tourism community … so we have all of the makings and those critical elements to host a major event like the Super Bowl,” Parry said. “We believe we are well positioned for that fifth Super Bowl in Arizona.”
Considering the eight-year gap between the Super Bowl in 2015 and Super Bowl 57, Parry said she doesn’t have a specific date for when the next one will return, but “our goal is to be in the regular rotation.”
