San Diego’s Super Bowl attraction
SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – The commissioner was emphasizing the league’s priority is to its fans, which happens to reinforce Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s claim about the fans supporting the Chargers for 55 years.
This could boost San Diego’s effort to get a new stadium and the city’s hope for hosting another Super Bowl, the last being in 2003 when Tampa Bay played the Raiders in Super Bowl 37.
What could be better?
A perfect winter day in sunny San Diego with Qualcomm Stadium hosting the largest television event in sports. Super Bowls are national events.
There was one exception. Then Commissioner Paul Tagliabue warned San Diego there would be no future Super Bowls here until the antiquated Qualcomm Stadium is replaced with a new state-of-the-art facility.
Super Bowls used to have a regular rotation. That changed when the NFL began rewarding cities for investing in new stadiums.
Since then, cities building new stadiums were quickly awarded a Super Bowl, Santa Clara being a good example.
A new stadium would put San Diego in a prime position to host another Super Bowl.
"It isn’t just about a Super Bowl. It’s about what it brings to the city, and its civic pride and it pulls a community together," said John Hawkins, who was involved in the city hosting the Super Bowl in 2003.
Hawkins pointed out that San Diego is a world class city in communications, in bio sciences, research and development and we have a world class symphony. An NFL team is part of that.
"When the have the Rolling Stones here, when we have Paul McCartney here with Billy Joel coming they’re choosing this city for a reason it’s a world class city, and a Super Bowl is just part of that component to lose a Super Bowl is a big deal to have one is a big deal," Hawkins said.
Hawkins said there’s a lot of pride behind your colors when you host a Super Bowl.
"It pulls the community together, it puts your city on the map and I think its been a huge compliment to San Diego having the Chargers and having Super Bowls here through the decades," he said.
This is what you’ll hear if the city and the Chargers can reach a deal for a new stadium. A Super Bowl will be one of the biggest selling points in terms of economic impact, despite countless studies showing the benefits are oversold.
"First of all there’s gonna be tourists in town anyway during the month of February and so what the Super Bowl does is sort add a little cream and froth already on top of the base," said Erik Bruvold, head of National University’s Think Tank.
Bruvold said Super Bowls are important, but hardly an economic windfall.
"It has a slight positive impact, but no where near what the promoters say," he said.
Bruvold said much of the money that is made will go to private businesses, hotels and restaurants, not the government agencies and cities that foot the bill for hosting the game.
