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Windfall for Super Bowl Hosts? Economists Say It’s Overstated

For more than a decade, the N.F.L. has offered a roughly nine-figure quid pro quo with American cities: Invest hundreds of millions of dollars of public money in a stadium, and a Super Bowl will come.

Seven N.F.L. stadiums have been built in the last 12 years. By 2020, all will have hosted the country’s biggest sporting spectacle. When new stadiums open near Los Angeles and in Las Vegas during the next decade, they will get a Super Bowl, too.

New stadiums, supported by as many public dollars as possible, have long been one of the league’s priorities.