Economic Impacct of Super Bowl LI & the Houston Astros Post Season Run

By David Theis

It wasn’t so very long ago that critics complained that downtown Houston was boring. Then along came 2017, possibly the most exciting year Houston has ever experienced. Between being flooded by Harvey, sheltering Harvey victims, and playing host to both the Super Bowl and the World Series, Downtown was ground zero for the intensity.

And also for the branding. We can’t say the world discovered the city in 2017. “Houston already had a pretty strong brand,” says John Story, associate professor of management and marketing at the University of St. Thomas. “People everywhere know it as the energy capital and the home of NASA.” But hosting the Super Bowl and the World Series gave the world a different look at the city. For the Super Bowl, “150,000 people came here who had never been, and they had a great time. They went home and told people that Houston was really cool.”

Beyond the actual visitors, media exposure reached a massive audience. 150,000 credentialed media set up shop here, some broadcasting for a full week from Discovery Green. The game, shown with frequent cutaways to the city, was seen by 174 million, and the Lady Gaga halftime show was “the most watched spectacle in television history,” according to Bob Eury, Executive Director of Central Houston. 30-second Super Bowl LI ads went for $5 million, so the image building that the city received was very valuable indeed. Beyond that, the event generated some 6.8 billion media impressions; that’s how often the name Houston appeared in print, electronic, or social media, according to Sally Sargent, President and CEO of the Super Bowl LI.

Besides the highly effective branding, the Super Bowl also generated around $347 million in revenues, even factoring in expenses and the money that was lost because the Super Bowl chased all other types of tourism out of town.

Houstonians themselves. Ric Campo,chair of the Super Bowl Houston Host Committee, notes that “1.3 million came to Discovery Green (for Super Bowl Live).” Beyond generating considerable economic activity, the events generated “tremendous civic pride,” according to Campo. “There was a zip in the city’s step.”

The World Series is obviously a very different animal. It doesn’t attract nearly as many out-of-towners. Airbnb reported that most of the guests who booked lodging during the World Series were already from the Houston area. And, compared to the Super Bowl haul, the $20-$30 million that the home games in the World Series generated looks pretty modest.

But that’s not the only way to measure impact. The media wasn’t here in the same numbers, but the attention Houston received was of extremely high quality. The “overcoming Harvey” narrative had locked in, and the world was taking a much deeper look at the city than World Series hosts usually receive. To cite a few examples, ESPN. com’s Wright Thompson wrote not one, but two in-depth profiles of the city that rank with the best writing ever about Houston. Many other media outlooks, from the Los Angeles Times to the New York Times, explored the same story.

Beyond the feeling, exotic for Houstonians, that the world was taking a long, approving look at us, we also enjoyed our own city in a new way, best demonstrated by the astonishing weekday World Series parade that shut down not only Downtown, but HISD.

Attracting a crowd some estimated at upwards of one million, the parade was the biggest event ever held in Downtown.

So, civic pride was (and still is) at an all-time high. How does that translate concretely to the life of Houston, and specifically to the life of Downtown? Amanda Calderon has a ready answer. She and her boyfriend Mingo Marquez moved into 500 Crawford, across from Minute Maid Park, just before the season started, attracted by the ballpark itself, along with the sports lounge in the building.

Obviously passionate Astro fans, Calderon and Marquez lived the ups and downs of the playoffs, then took to the streets to celebrate after Game 7. Calderon, 27, grew up in Angleton, and has lived in Houston for three years. The excitement and camaraderie she found that night showed her that, “Houston isn’t what people expect. It’s more than the Galleria and Rice Village. It has an energy I’ve never experienced,” she explains. She and Marquez have decided to renew their lease in March, just in time for baseball.

The Super Bowl won’t be coming back for at least a few years—but the World Series is another story.