San Francisco is not Santa Clara: How Santa Clara/San Jose are poorly represented by Super Bowl programming, even though it's home to the event

Yes, we're familiar with how many professional teams labeled after "their city" are no longer based in the city, but in the suburbs, e.g., the New York Giants and New York Jets play in New Jersey, the Arizona Cardinals play in Glendale, not Phoenix, and the San Francisco Giants moved from the city to the suburbs of San Jose in return for lots of subsidy--$80 million directly and hundreds of millions in bonds ("7 Things to Know About the Complicated Relationship Between Santa Clara and the 49ers," KQED/NPR).

Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara has the game but most of the sanctioned events leading up to it are in San Francisco. Kirby Lee/Imagn Images/Reuters

This is a problem when it comes to "economic benefits of the Super Bowl to the local economy," when the NFL will hold activities in "the big city"--New York City not suburban New Jersey, Phoenix not Glendale, and in the case of Sunday's Super Bowl, LV, in San Francisco not Santa Clara or San Jose ("Big game, big bill: Santa Clara mayor flags Super Bowl costs to the city," NBC, "Congrats, Your City Gets to Host the Super Bowl. The Party’s 40 Miles Away," Wall Street Journal, "Super Bowl LX week will once again be centered in San Francisco, but San Jose will kick off the fanfare," San Jose Mercury News).

From the WSJ:

San Jose got one sanctioned event—Super Bowl Opening Night. Mayor Matt Mahan opted to not get mad, but get even. He helped raise $5 million from businesses to field a competing roster of events, including a three-day block party called Super Fest, watch parties, drone shows and sold-out outdoor performances by the R&B singer Kehlani and DJ Dom Dolla.

I doubt the San Jose programs, scheduled against NFL sanctioned events held elsewhere, will have a significant effect in drawing fans to San Jose, especially if people are staying in hotels in SF.

The last Super Bowl in Santa Clara, in 2026, earned the city less than $1 million.  From "‘We’ll be on the center stage’: San Jose pulls out all the stops for 2026 sports bonanza," Local News Matters:

When Levi’s Stadium hosted Super Bowl 50 in 2016, reports found the Bay Area saw a $240 million boost to the local economy — San Jose, however, only saw 12% of those economic benefits, while 57% went to San Francisco. Santa Clara, where the stadium is located, only saw 7% of the benefits.

It's rare for a sports economic impact study to be so fine-grained.  They also subtracted out negative effects, and separately accounted for in kind project donations to area nonprofits.

Usually, small businesses don't benefit much from these events, as most of the money patrons spend is on travel, lodging, car rental, and food and beverage, and many of these firms are not locally owned.  From "Super Bowl LX preps spotlight local sourcing as NFL targets $360M economic impact," Silicon Valley Business Journal.

The NFL is also trying to keep the economic impact local, according to the NFL's Vice President of Global Events, Nicki Ewell. She said the league used a local-first sourcing strategy, sourcing from regional restaurants, vendors and local labor for stadium build-out and events so spending stays in the Bay Area.

Previous Silicon Valley Business Journal reporting shows that Super Bowl LX is projected to bring 90,000 people to the Bay Area in addition to a projected $360 million to $630 million in economic impact.

"This is huge," said Jayne Ancheta, owner of Santa Clara-based Macaron De Jayne and Source LX participant. "I secured multiple contracts for the Super Bowl events, and I had catering opportunities outside of the Super Bowl." The Super Bowl also marks an opportunity to spotlight the Bay Area, Ewell noted.

Note the same kinds of issues are present with "All Star Games" in baseball and basketball, etc.

-- "Musing on the economic impact of cultural and sports events," 2019
-- "Not enough time for a 2024 DC-Baltimore Olympic Bid (to make sense)," 2014
-- "Big sporting events (World Cup/Olympics), economic development and trickle down economics," 2014
-- "Super Bowl," 2016
-- "More need for economic revitalization planning/linkage with sports stadiums: Las Vegas (+ Houston and the Super Bowl)," 2017
-- "Minneapolis Super Bowl: Urban Revitalization and Transformational Projects Action Planning," 2018

-- "NBA All Star Game in Salt Lake, economic development hype | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the Pirates baseball team economics," 2023

The Urban Land Institute disagrees ("Inglewood’s Transformation: How an NFL Stadium Brought the City Back from the Brink of Bankruptcy").  But not the Washington Post ("A home Super Bowl is good for the Rams. But is SoFi Stadium good for Inglewood?").

Special labor.  One point of difference that I failed to account for in the past in terms of economic impact is what we might call "special events labor"--the people who run lights, sound, etc. for the event.  There definitely is an impact here, where people might get paid for a couple week long temporary gig associated with the Super Bowl.

NFL Draft economic impact.  More recently, the NFL has made an event out of the Draft, which is now held each year in different cities across the country. Economic impact is claimed to be as much as one half of the economic impact of a Super Bowl, which seems outlandish to me ("NFL Draft Expected to Have Huge Economic Impact for Detroit," Corp!), but apparently many tens of thousands of people are attending. 

"NFL Draft: Fans flock to second day of NFL Draft as Detroit nears attendance record," CNN.

In 2024, it was estimated that 300,000 fans would come to Detroit for the Draft, more than double a typical Super Bowl.  

It makes no sense that these projections are accurate.  But this photograph from Detroit's Draft Days tells another story.

-- Economic Impact of the NFL Draft Event in Detroit, Andersen Economic Group.  AEG differentiates between direct and indirect impact, indirect has to do with the multiplier effect of money recirculating within the economy.  WRT sports event, indirect impact is somewhat reduced because some of the major beneficiaries are firms located elsewhere (like airlines, hotels, rental cars) and the money repatriates to those headquarter facilities.

I like this infographic on the economic impact, produced by the City of Detroit by Octane Design, in the Sports Travel Magazine article, "2024 NFL Draft Brings Detroit $213.6 Million in Estimated Economic Impact," Sports Travel Magazine.