PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. -- More than $700 million was pumped into the Arizona economy during Super Bowl XLIX and the Pro Bowl, played a week before, according to an economic-impact study announced Tuesday by the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee.
The study, done by the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and the Seidman Research Institute, determined the economic impact of both games to be $719.4 million over the course of a nine-day span, starting the day before the Pro Bowl and ending the day after the Super Bowl.
Only spending by out-of-state visitors and organizations was counted.
But direct spending from out-of-state visitors for the game, out-of-state media and out-of-state organizations totaled about $450 million, said Dr. Michael Mokwa, a professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business. The other $270 million of economic impact was the result of trickle-down effects, Mokwa said.
However, the Super Bowl was the big money-maker for the Valley of the Sun. Mokwa called Super Bowl XLIX a "record setter" adding that there hasn't been an event -- sporting or otherwise -- that had this large of an economic impact on the Phoenix area. By comparison, Super Bowl XLII in 2008 had an economic impact of $500 million, which would've been $550.1 million in 2015 dollars.
Mokwa did not present the financial benefit of the Pro Bowl as a singular event.
"Both the NFL and the host committee wanted it to be viewed as one event again because there were so many synergies between the things that were going on," Mokwa said.
The Pro Bowl was determined to be mainly a local event. David Rousseau, the chairman of the host committee, said he felt Arizona Cardinals season-ticket holders made up the majority of fan base inside University of Phoenix Stadium at the Pro Bowl.
One major impact the Pro Bowl had was the length of some media's stay in Arizona. Reporters who covered the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl stayed in the Phoenix area for seven days compared to four to five days for media who were in town just for the Super Bowl in 2008. About 5,033 out-of-town credentials were issued, according to the host committee.
Mokwa said he dispersed teams of students across the Phoenix area to conduct the study. They asked a series of questions to determine the economic impact: If people were visiting from out of state? If they were in town for the game or the surrounding activities? What their spending habits were? The study received about 2,500 initial responses and was able to use about 2,000 of them to determine the financial windfall of the game. The study also received cooperation from organizations involved with the Super Bowl -- such as ESPN and the NFL -- in determining their spending habits that week, Mokwa said.
Rousseau did not say if Arizona was preparing to bid on a future Super Bowl. The next available game is 2021.