The largest winning score at the Super Bowl is not the team that wins. It’s the economic points scored. This year, men performed as cheerleaders alongside women for the first time, Tom Brady of the Patriots set a record for the most super bowl wins by one player and, for the first time, a 30 second commercial cost $170,000 a second. What makes the Super Bowl such an economic force?
The fans
A whole lot of people watched the Super Bowl. And that’s an understatement, if ever there was one. The “fans” includes the millions that watched on their televisions as well as those in attendance in-person (which was in excess of 100,000 people). Generally speaking, the average Super Bowl tickets cost between $2,500 and $3,000, but that price varies depending on the particular matchup and when the tickets are purchased. Super Bowl XLIX between the Seahawks and the Patriots was an exception to this rule, with tickets averaging $4,314. Americans are expected to have spent a total of $14.8 billion on Super Bowl parties, an average cost of $81 per person, according to the National Retail Federation. People aged 35 to 44 are willing to spend the most on a party: $123.26.
Football fans spent the most money during Super Bowl L back in 2016, when the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers. That year, the average was $82.19 per person, the retail association said. “The amount has changed because more and more people are having bigger parties,” said Kemberley Washington, CPA and member of the American Institute of CPAs’ national CPA financial literacy commission.
The bets
There was $115.9 million bet on the Super Bowl in Las Vegas in 2018. Las Vegas has lost money on only two Super Bowls over the past 25 years. However, Vegas bets are just a drop in the bucket of the action. The American Gaming Association expect Americans to have bet $4.2 billion on the game; with 97% of bets wagered illegally.
The players
Players on the winning Super Bowl team earn $102,000. The losers make do with $51,000. However, players like Peyton Manning earned upwards of 850,000 weekly during the normal season. Just saying.
The ads
The Super Bowl is the only sporting event that draws people together around the television to excitedly watch… commercials. The biggest TV event of the year means advertisers are willing to pay incredible amounts to reach a gigantic audience, and the cost of a Super Bowl spot in 2019 set a new record.
According to CNBC, the cost of a 30-second ad during Super Bowl LIII was $5.25 million. The cost for a Super Bowl ad has risen nearly every year, and has increased by more than a million dollars since 2013.
Note: The average price of a 30-second ad during Game 7 of the 2016 World Series was just over $500,000 and the cost of a similar spot during the 2018 Oscars was about $2 million. Last year’s Super Bowl prices, in contrast, ran about $5 million per spot.
Takeaway
A lot of money circulates around the major American cultural event that we so fondly know as “The Super Bowl.” As you have seen, the game in total, nets in the billions. American football is the most popular sport to watch in the United States, followed by basketball, baseball, hockey, and soccer. But In 2018, the average cost for a 30-second commercial on CBS during the men’s basketball championship game was $1.5 million (according to data collected by Kantar Media). And other sports trail well behind this price point. This shows that football is still, by far, the most high-netting sport in the world.
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