Loading...
With Sunday’s Super Bowl LX fast approaching, the true cost of staging the event has had eyes watering.
Santa Clara will play host to the NFL’s flagship event on Sunday, as six-time winners New England Patriots take on the Seattle Seahawks, who are in pursuit of their first Super Bowl since claiming the franchise’s inaugural title in 2014.
The modest city in California, renowned for housing Silicon Valley, tech titan Apple, and this year’s chosen venue in Levi’s Stadium, has become the center of fierce financial debate.
Levi’s Stadium is gearing up to throw an all-American party, but at quite the expense of the city's taxpayers.
Per The San Francisco Chronicle, Santa Clara officials initially pegged the preliminary cost of the Super Bowl at around $6.3 million - largely for public safety and security, including police, fire, traffic management, and event staffing.
While $6.3 million sounds like chump change in contrast to the billions of dollars adorning the pockets of the 32 NFL franchises, in the context of city budgets and taxpayer risk, it’s not without controversy.
Under the finalized Super Bowl agreement, a local not-for-profit, the Bay Area Host Committee (BAHC), is supposed to reimburse Santa Clara for these expenses. In practice, that means writing checks for roughly $6.4 million and more as costs firm up in the showpiece event’s build-up.
However, the situation isn’t drama-free. Critics, including Mayor Lisa Gillmor, warned that neither the non-profit nor its financial backstops have solid, transparent assets to guarantee full repayment over time, leaving the city temporarily carrying potentially huge bills.
For the Bay Area as a whole, the Super Bowl is expected to generate a whopping economic windfall, with studies estimating that any spending related to the game would be offset by a predicted $1.4 billion in tourism, hospitality, and ancillary events.
Comparatively, 2025’s Super Bowl LIX, hosted in New Orleans, saw match operations reach $5 million in expenses, although the local economy is said to have pocketed $1.25 billion from the business brought to the region.
With both a shot at history, an estimated prize money of $178,000 per player, and a $6.3 million tax bill for residents, there is a lot at stake for both the prospective winners and the US city.
But for residents and city planners, the unwanted question of whether the cost is worth the cachet lingers over them as the area prepares to open its own Super Bowl chapter.
