Super Bowl 2017: What Houston residents will reap from the big game

Richard Sheehan

The NFL is popularly viewed as a sport league, with the Super Bowl the culmination of a year’s efforts and successes. In terms of viewer interest, its rivals are events like the Oscars, the opening ceremony of the Olympics, the World Cup final or even the presidential election results. 

But first and foremost the NFL is a business, whether it’s negotiating player contracts, televising games or hosting the Super Bowl. And that is something that should be kept in mind, from host cities to fans.

It seems that every year at this time the NFL puts out a story on how much the host city will gain from its hosting efforts, generally finding the city gains about $700 million.

It’s a parlor game among economists to determine why their estimates are so exaggerated.

Independent analysts suggest that the host city will incur expenses of about $50 million and net income in the area will increase by about $100 million.

Economists might get excited about those numbers, but what does it mean for the typical resident of the host city?

Houston’s population is about 2.2 million. That $50 million cost? If you are a Houston resident, your share is about $22 dollars. That $100 million in income? Your share of that would be about $44.

Read the entire article on the Fox News website.