Saints withdraw 2012 Superbowl bid
Here's the one thing I could never understand.. it looks like the state has to cough up about 6 or 7 million each year to cover the shortfall from the hotel tax. Blanco continually whined about giving the Saints any money to subsidize the team.. and yet her constant delaying of getting a deal done has already cost the team of hosting a minimum of 2 Superbowls. The most recent estimate of the economic impact of ONE Superbowl is 300 to 400 MILLION dollars. Isn't that kinda like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine and then whining about how much you had to put in?
Wow, where are you getting your information from? I recall debating this topic pretty fiercely the past few years and I don't remember any of what you just typed.
1) Blanco didn't whine about giving the Saints
any money. The complaint was that the shortfall was having to come out of the general state budget because the projected source of revenue for the payments was not accurate. The request was made to adjust the annual payments to an amount more in-line with what the hotel/motel tax actually generated.
2) Blanco tried to get a deal done. She even proposed the construction of a new stadium which many will quickly shoot down as her going through the motions, yet it was more than anyone else has come close to doing. Benson did not show a willingness to negotiate with her because she approached him with the request to reduce the amount of the payments. Both parties opted to slinging mud at each other instead of getting a deal done.
3) New Orleans was not about to get a Superbowl with the string of new stadiums already promised Superbowls. It's possible that the Saints might have been in the running for the 2007 Superbowl, but the rest were to newly built or renovated stadiums since the last New Orleans Superbowl. The teams with newer stadiums are going to get the nod over New Orleans since those cities decided to subsidize their respective NFL teams with new digs.
A quick search of "economic impact of a superbowl" reveals an article from january of 2007 that predicted a "record $195 million in direct spending for Miami-Dade" during Superbowl XLI. The huge $300 million dollar numbers you see (someplace that I have never seen) are probably inflated figures using economic multipliers which are highly debated. Regardless, the state budget doesn't see all of that money. The immediate area sees that money, which is why the annual payments are to come from .... the local hotel/motel tax.
Starting to make sense yet?