Chris Whalen’s Random Life

Ok, now i have been hearing reports about the Superbowl possibly going to London in 2017. My personal opinion aside as to why this is a bad idea, let’s break it down a bit.

The Superbowl, first and foremost, is generally an economic bonanza for the host city. Unlike an Olympics, which are often marginally profitable if not lose money, the Superbowl leads to a very concentrated one week economic boom, usually close to $1B for the local economy. Fresh off their 2012 Olympic bid win, London probably feels they will have the venue and infrastructure set up for a Superbowl because they will have already done massive (and long overdue) improvements for the Olympics. From a pure financial standpoint, London can probably give a far larger monetary guarantee to the NFL than most US cities mainly because of the size and scale of London and the unique one-time event it will be. I have to say in my last few trips there, especially around the NFL annual game there, many Londoners can be seen wearing NFL garb, they genuinely do enjoy the game (as much as they understand it) and London and Berlin are probably the cities outside the US that enjoy the US version of football beyond anyone else. Although the Chinese do LOVE the highlight reels and have described it to me as a human cartoon or real life superheroes.

On the other side, very few US citizens will make the trip as opposed to putting it in a US city. Also, you are effectively removing a large annual economic event from the US economy. And then there is the branding issue. Most people I talked to have no interest in sharing this event internationally. Why put it in a city where there is not the established fan base to really even make it the success it traditionally is domestically? Things could change but for now that really doesn’t make sense to me. Adding the Pro Bowl to the open week before the Superbowl does, maybe as a two week event this makes a little more sense, but not really.

This does not even address security concerns. WHile London would have dealt with those for the 2012 Games, the real challenge is the concentrated travel patterns from the US to the UK, far easier to predict and plan an event around. Just a concentrated route…..

Overall, moving the draft somewhere might be much more effective. Perhaps in the city with the #1 pick to really take advantage of the already heightened draft interest there?