Can you put a price tag on improved psyche? Is it possible to calculate the economic impact of civic pride? How much value is there in having bragging rights?
Whenever a city hosts a Super Bowl, or some other huge event, economists sprint to their calculators to share data of how much cash will be pumped into the local economy.
Take Super Bowl 55 that will be played in Tampa Sunday. If this were a normal year, the parties would be raging already. Every airport in the region would be packed with private jets, as A-List entertainers roll into town to host or perform at big dollar bashes, and the NFL cranks up their hospitality machine with events all over the city.
In a normal year, the Super Bowl’s economic impact would be responsible for pumping about $300-$400 million into the local economy. If you haven’t noticed, this is not a “normal year,” as the coronavirus has changed almost every conceivable thing about the Super Bowl.
For instance, the Kansas City Chiefs are not arriving into Tampa until Saturday, the day before the game. Normally the teams would fly into the host city one full week before the game, to prepare for the surroundings, meet massive media requests, and also enjoy a little bit of the fun that comes with playing in a Super Bowl. The capacity for Sunday’s game will be limited to around 22,000. Heck, for all we know, The Weeknd might be performing at halftime wearing a hazmat suit.
What makes matters more bizarre this year is the Tampa Bay Bucs will be the first Super Bowl team to ever play the game in their home stadium. It’s never happened, and they’ve been playing the big game since 1967.
While the city of Tampa is going to miss out on literally hundreds of millions of dollars in found money from hosting the Super Bowl for the first time since 1991, they may be able to make up the money in another way. By becoming known worldwide as “The City of Champions.”
In the strange and bizarre past 11 months the whole world has experienced, one of the most unexpected occurrences is every single professional sports team in Tampa has played for a championship.
This rash of amazingly good fortune started with the Stanley Cup Final, that was won by the Tampa Bay Lightning in September of 2020. Playing all the games far away in the NHL bubble in Toronto, Canada, the Lightning beat the Dallas Stars in six games.
One month later, the Tampa Bay Rays made it all the way to the World Series, before losing to the L.A. Dodgers in a World Series that again forced Tampa fans to travel far away to witness it. In this case, the Dallas area.
Back in March of 2020, when Tom Brady signed with the Bucs, fans began fantasizing about the possibility that the home town team would be playing in their home town stadium in February.
Through the magic that comes with Brady’s right arm, it happened, and after the disappointment of not being able to watch the other two championship series’ in person, Tampa fans get the satisfaction of seeing if their team can win, and then celebrate a title in their back yard.
The city of Los Angeles won the 2020 NBA Finals with the Lakers and the 2020 World Series with the Dodgers. The city of Boston used to be “Winnersville,” but most of their teams are either mediocre or lousy, and the shine has rubbed off their 15-year glow.
Now, everything is right there for the city of Tampa. If Tom Brady, the biggest winner in the history of any sport wins his seventh Super Bowl in his 10th try, and brings the Lombardi Trophy to the fans in his new city, it would be impossible to argue with the fact that Tampa is the “City of Champions.”
Talk to anyone you know who lives or is from Tampa right now. Do they seem like the same person you knew five or ten years ago? No, there is no dollar amount associated with feeling you are the best. Pride and confidence can not be measured by economists. Residents of Tampa are potentially on the verge of owning the world. It might make a couple hundred million in lost revenue because of the pandemic a drop in the bucket and totally worth it.
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