Super Bowl 58 may be biggest special event in Las Vegas history

Vegas Chamber President and CEO Mary Beth Sewald shared a story Tuesday that exemplifies some hidden economic spinoff benefits of Super Bowl 2024 in Las Vegas that point to it being the most successful special event in the city’s history.

Sewald said she heard from one of her small-business landscape member companies that a resident hired the company to spruce up the backyard for a Super Bowl barbecue and that the company has gotten an unprecedented number of similar requests.

While it may not be on the radar for calculating Super Bowl weekend spending, it could be.

The National Retail Federation believes each American household will spend an estimated $86 on Super Bowl essentials leading up to Sunday’s game at Allegiant Stadium — a total of $17.3 billion nationwide. Men will outspend women by $30 per household.

Sewald was joined Tuesday by seven economists and experts in a briefing by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the economic impact the Super Bowl will have on cities across the country.

Curtis Dubay, chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the Las Vegas area would be the biggest beneficiary of the game at Allegiant Stadium. But every town across America will get a share of the rewards because consumers will gather, mostly at people’s homes, to watch the game and spend money on food, decorations and game gear.

The U.S. Chamber estimates consumers in Southern Nevada will spend $136.6 million at retail outlets.

But the real bonanza for Southern Nevada comes with being the host city. Thousands of people are arriving in Las Vegas and are expected to spend millions of dollars. Analysts won’t know precisely how much until weeks after the game, but there are estimates that range from 330,000 to 450,000 people in town spending between $500 million and $1.1 billion.

The conservative $500 million estimate is a standard measure for most Super Bowls issued by the NFL. Jeremy Aguero, principal at Las Vegas-based Applied Analysis, who participated in the briefing, thinks that amount is low.

He explained that three factors contribute to Las Vegas seeing a higher economic impact: hotel room rates, which have soared well beyond traditional Las Vegas average daily room rates and more than in the Phoenix area last year; the number of ancillary events affiliated with the Super Bowl has grown to around 300; and simply inflation — everything costs more than it did a year ago.

Aguero said a traditional visitor coming to Las Vegas spends about $1,100 per person per trip. The typical Super Bowl visitor will spend between four and five times that amount while they’re in town.

While the U.S. Chamber said it will take time to fully realize the full economic impact on Las Vegas, figures from Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, Arizona, a year ago provide some clues.

The total economic activity or gross output for Arizona was $1.3 billion. Phoenix-area hotels had a 90 percent occupancy rate and produced more than $91 million in room revenue. An estimated 200,000 passengers passed through Sky Harbor International Airport, an all-time single-day record in that airport’s history. The Transportation Security Administration at Harry Reid International Airport are gearing for massive crowds Monday with every line at every checkpoint to be staffed for 48 hours.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.