The Impact of the Big Game - Term Paper Example

The Impact of the Big Game Introduction The History of the Super Bowl can be traced back to 1960s when the National Football League (NFL) first merged with the American Football League (AFL). The name ‘Super Bowl’ was born and has ever since used to refer to one of the highest professional football leagues of the world. The roman numbers are usually used to identify the actual dates when the big game will be held rather than the respective year. The day that the Super Bowl game is held is normally called the ‘Super Bowl Sunday’ and often one of the largest food consumption days in America (MacCambridge, 237). It is actually ranked the second from Thanksgiving Day. The last tournament is therefore held on a Sunday. Initially, the Super Bowl Sundays were normally in the first week of the month of January unlike today when the Super Bowl Sundays have shifted further down to even the month of February. Over the years, the Super Bowls have featured great musicians and singers of the world something that has further increased its popularity to the rest of the world. Although the game has been held in several major cities in America, most of the Super Bowls have in the past been converged in three major cities; New Orleans, Miami area and Los Angeles. Out of the forty nine Super Bowls held so far, twenty seven of them have been held in these three regions. Something that can be highly attributed to the American political and socio-economic factors (MacCambridge, 237). The host stadium is normally a stadium that is not a home stadium to any of the teams participating in the competition. The stadium is normally selected five years prior the tournament. There are however several requirements that a city and the stadium must meet to be selected as a potential host of the tournament. Such requirements include the fact that the stadium must hold a capacity of not less than seventy thousand people’s seated, must have an adequate parking space, an adequate entertainment area and more so adequate infrastructure (Branch, 10-15). The Super Bowl is basically one of the most significant football events in the entire United States and attracts numerous audiences willing to pay highly for the seats in the stadium. According to Matheson (2-3), in the year 2008, a typical bowl ticket was averaging to seven hundred dollars. Eventually, the Super Bowl league is one of the most watched American television events in a year. Between the year 2000 and 2009, the Super Bowl event attracted more than ninety million viewers in the United States alone (Matheson, 5-6). Since then, different scholars of the world feel that the figure has gone up following its increased popularity and revived interests. According to recent statistics in America, the Super Bowl viewers can today be estimated to roughly a hundred and fourteen million viewers per minute. It is no doubt the most watched event in America. Super Bowl event is an internationally recognized event and has had varied impacts on the different American cities where it is held as well as the surrounding community in general. These impacts range from social, political to economic impacts. Hicks (1-4) further articulate that both the Super Bowl pre and post shows and news event in a city or a region adequately make the city or the region a centre of attraction which is a crucial amenity to business growth. Super Bowl sporting events held in a certain city do not only turn the city into a viable environment for business growth and development but also a target destination to the visitors, players, performers, musicians, media and even revelers from all over the world. Although, this is normally for a short period of time, it adequately has short-term and long-term impacts on the city itself, the surrounding community or communities as well as the region in general. Effects to the Local and regional economy of the city of New Orleans The city of New Orleans has so far hosted ten of the Super Bowl tournaments since the beginning of the Super Bowl events. This has had major effects to both the local and the regional economies. The Super Bowl tournament attracts a number of new visitors from all over the world who normally travel following their passion of the game. This alone has an impact on the city and the surrounding community in terms of wages, value attributed to the goods and services, expenditure as well as the tax to be received. The hosting of the Super Bowl in a city further has an impact on the per capita income of the host city. According to Coates and Humphreys (291-299), the impact of hosting the tournament has a low but a positive impact on the personal income of the different individuals since the per capita income different individuals increases by a small margin. When New Orleans first hosted the Super Bowl in the 1970, several international stadiums had to be constructed so as to reach the standards of hosting the tournament. Major public facilities such as football stadiums are crucial in attracting foreign investments to a certain region. Following the development of international stadiums, New Orleans slowly attracted investors from America and even outside America. The presence of investors in the city largely contributed in expansion of business opportunities in the city and particularly in the food industry. Today, more hotels and restaurant both local and international have been born further providing employment to the local and regional populations. In the year 2013, the Super Bowl tournament held in New Orleans was estimated to make a contribution of approximately four hundred and thirty four dollars to the economy of the New Orleans’ city. This had been arrived at by averaging the expected spending of the visitors during the big game. Also, the data had also been compared and developed from a previous Super Bowl event that was held in the year 2002. During this event, it is obvious that the city hotels are expected to be fully occupied and the cost of the food items is also expected to rise. Nonetheless, the direct and indirect spending by the visitors form a crucial part of the city gains during this vital event. The level of taxes collected in the city eventually gets high hence greater capital to finance the city capital projects or cater for the costs associated with bringing the big game to the city. The increase in taxes results from an increase in the taxable sales during the event period. Effects to Employment Whenever, New Orleans City holds the Super Bowl event, more new stadiums get developed; the old ones get upgraded and the roads and other terminals serving the stadiums get expanded. This has been a core source of employment to both the residents of the New Orleans City and the non-residents who only come to the city to seek employment opportunities. Following the fact New Orleans is a major Super Bowl host, investors have camped in the city and have further aided in the provision of the social services by capitalizing on the available opportunities in the market and at the same time creating employment opportunities to the city dwellers. A major source of employment in New Orleans city has mainly been infrastructural jobs. Today, New Orleans is ranked twelfth among the United States cities offering big infrastructure jobs. According to Dadayan and Boyd (15-20), New Orleans infrastructure jobs form approximately thirteen percent of the entire American infrastructure jobs. This percentage largely consist of the different workers working as operators in different refineries in New Orleans, bridge engineers, container haulers as well as other casual labor forces working on the nation’s infrastructure. Effect to the Infrastructure According to Branch (10-14), one of the basic requirements of a host city to the Super Bowl tournament is that the city must have an adequate infrastructure. Infrastructures in this case entail the railroad network system, roads, ports; airport and the seaport, bridges, parking lots, drainage systems and even the power supply plants. As a result of hosting a number of Super Bowl tournaments in the past years, New Orleans’s infrastructural network has adversely developed and expanded. Today, New Orleans is ranked among the top twenty developed cities in America in terms of the infrastructures. Being a major American seaport, New Orleans city is served by a good road and rail network system. The city is served by modern super highways, modern railroads, modern bridges as well as modern parking lots. The city also has a major power source bearing in mind that it houses major oil refineries. Presence of a well laid infrastructural network has not only opened the city to the rest of America but also to the rest of the world. The port of New Orleans is today the sixth largest port in America and is widely known for its long wharf that makes it have a capability of accommodating at least fifteen vessels in a single berth. The wharf is the longest in the world. Effect to Education The ‘big game’ has had its significant contributions to the growth and expansion of the infrastructures in the New Orleans City. This has adversely resulted into growth and development of public schools and other social amenities in the city. The children to the workers and the city dwellers today have adequate places to access both basic and advanced education studies. Further, the Super Bowl tournament has had an impact on the school’s curriculums following the fact that the different schools want to nurture the next generation of talents to be featured in the super league. All over the world, football and other sporting activities have widely been appreciated as core professions unlike in the past. In most American schools today, the different schools and colleges in the different regions and cities do hold regional and national competition tournaments every year. Such tournaments are geared towards nurturing and improving the talents available in the different schools and colleges and to further search for the talents to be featured in Super Bowl. Effect to the Community Development The Super Bowl has had significant contributions to the community development agendas in New Orleans city. Back in the early 1960s, a significant percentage of individuals residing in New Orleans city and its neighboring regions were basically workers working in the Port of New Orleans and the major refineries in the city. They experienced varied difficulties not only economic-related but also social-related. There were inadequate schools and other social amenities hence access to social services was a big problem. With the city holding a number of Super Bowl tournaments in the preceding years since 1960, the social and economic struggles have adequately been addressed. The extensive growth of the social amenities and other institutions has powered unity amongst the different communities residing in New Orleans. The New Orleans city was further hit by a hurricane- Katrina Hurricane in the year 2005 further destroying the homes of the different communities residing in New Orleans. This was a great setback to the community development agendas in New Orleans. Nevertheless, the residents of New Orleans have today healed from the catastrophe and have even developed adequate principles to help guide them in making New Orleans city a better place for every single individual and the future generations to come. The Super Bowl tournament has further been an iconic figure to not only bringing the New Orleans communities together in social events but also in luring new visitors and residents to New Orleans. Effect to Politics The fact that the New Orleans City has hosted several Super Bowl events since the 1960s is never taken lightly by some individuals. These individuals feel that New Orleans has been favored by the event organizers and the respective boards of committees. Further, as a result of hosting the Super Bowl event in the city, formation of teams capable of participating in the profession football leagues and Super Bowl tournaments is often encouraged amongst the youths. Further, such teams can seek sponsorships from the governmental organizations or other non-governmental organizations. Effects to civic pride Civic pride is basically the satisfaction with the achievements a person or groups of persons have achieved in a certain period of time. The civic pride can also be associated with a city’s achievements as well as the achievements made by a certain nation. Nevertheless, in sports, the different sport organizers and sport leagues and even the team owners all over the world often justify the use of public funds by the economic gains realized and the civic pride generated by a particular team or events held (Groothuis and Rotthoff, 1-22). However, different scholars distant themselves from this fact and argue that the level of the public fund spending can never be matched to the economic impacts or the magnitude of the civic pride created. Hosting the Super Bowl in New Orleans made the city become a world spotlight. This is so not only following the numerous visitors who visited the town during the big game but also the number of visitors who later visited the city following its exposure. Obviously, having hosted the Super Bowl for ten times, New Orleans has adequately improved its image to the eyes of the different individuals of the world making it a tour destination to most individuals of the world. This is a good feeling to the city dwellers. Works Cited Groothuis, Peter A. and Rotthoff, Kurt W. “Surveying the Literature and the People: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Civic Pride.” 2014. DOI: 973.761.9102. John Branch. "Build It and They Will Come". February 4, 2006. The New York Times. Lucy Dadayan and Donald J. Boyd, “April ‘Surprises’ More Surprising Than Expected: Depressed Income Tax Collections Adding to Budget Pressures,” Rockefeller Institute of Government Special Report, June 2014. MacCambridge, Michael. “Americas Game”. New York: Random House, 2004, p. 237. Matheson, Victor, A. “Economics of Super Bowl”. College of the holy cross, department of Economics. Faculty research series, (2009): 09-14. Pennington, Hilary. “New Start New Orleans: New Jobs for a Better Gulf.” 2005. Web. 7 April, 2014. http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=1103705 Read More