The city of Miami will reap an economic windfall from this year’s Super Bowl. But will the Chiefs’ worldwide exposure also benefit Kansas City?
Yes, said a professor at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Economics Professor Michael Davis, Ph.D., said on average, NFL teams with 10 or 11 victories in the season will fuel about a $100 additional income per person, according to Missourinet.
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“Which may not sound like a lot, but $100 spread over millions of people is quite a bit of money,” he says. “What we’re looking at is the more general impact of people going to businesses that have nothing to do with the sports team. So nothing to do with the Chiefs, just a company that is headquartered in Kansas City, is going to have a lot of Chiefs fans as employees.”
His analysis covers decades of data going back to 1969.
“If the local football team does well, you are happier,” Davis said. “Therefore, that happiness will then translate into either you being more productive at work – you go in on Monday, your team having won and you do a lot better job – or you consume more.”
Daniel Funk, the Curioud Washburn Research Fellow at Temple University’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management, agrees.
“The city will get a destination image bump when a team goes to the Super Bowl,” he said. “The increased level of publicity and exposure, along with related news coverage on the team and event, will spill over and provide some destination branding for the city. This can create interest in visiting the city at a later date, which could bring new money into the local economy via tourism. There will certainly be a spike in merchandise sales for each team.”
The Kansas City Chamber of Commerce will appreciate the free advertising to a huge audience.
“A city that hosts the Super Bowl benefits greatly in terms of exposure, which translates into increased awareness,” Funk said. “There have been studies that examine the number of times a city has received a media mention across various digital and physical platforms. This is often quantified in terms of advertising rates that correspond to when the city appears in various platforms. Data analytics on digital platforms such as Google can also provide insight into search terms and what is trending.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
