The Super Bowl’s return to the Los Angeles area after a nearly 30-year absence is providing a much-needed boost to small businesses hard hit by the pandemic. The Super Bowl can inject millions of dollars into a local economy, benefiting businesses beyond those hired to help stage the event.
Estimated Benefits
An analysis paid for by the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission projected Sunday’s game will generate between $234 million and $477 million for the region’s economy. That includes up to $22 million in tax revenue and between 2,200 to 4,700 new jobs, according to the report by Micronomics, an economic research and consulting firm.
Many of the projected new jobs are expected to be in the event production and hospitality sectors — areas of the local economy among the hardest hit by the pandemic. More than half are expected to be positions in hotels, restaurants, and transportation, among others.
“A lot of the recovery that’s yet to take place is still in service and tourism-related industries,” said Shannon Sedgwick, director of research at the nonprofit Los Angeles County Economic Development. “Having an event like the Super Bowl come to the region and bringing back individuals, with their visitor spending is only going to have a positive economic benefit for the region.”
Los Angeles County, home to roughly 10 million people, lost almost 773,000 jobs between March and April 2020, the early weeks of the pandemic. The region’s unemployment rate surged from a pre-pandemic 4.5% to 18.8% by May 2020. Hiring has picked back up in the months since, as pandemic lockdowns eased. As of December 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 6.2%. Service industries, including health care, retail, transportation, and financial activities, account for 89% of L.A. County’s economy, Sedgwick said. Out of that, roughly 11% is made up of leisure and hospitality, the category that includes restaurants and bars.