When we think of needy organizations, the NFL isn’t high on our list. So count us surprised to find the state’s Empire State Development Corporation awarding $5 million in taxpayer funds to a local Super Bowl host Âcommittee.
The $5 million is to help promote activities related to the NFL’s title game that will be played in February across the river at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
These include setting up a Super Bowl Boulevard along a 10-block stretch of Broadway complete with a 180-foot toboggan run and a video-mapping room featuring NFL films. There’s also plans for a big media party.
Sounds like fun. But should New York really be spending taxpayer dollars here?
It’s estimated this Super Bowl will generate close to a half-billion dollars in economic activity. The host committee has 29 different major corporate sponsors and 11 other host partners. All are well-heeled — including the NFL itself.
And let’s face facts: Does anyone really need to launch a special campaign to excite public interest in what Forbes has ranked the world’s biggest sporting event, generating more revenue than even the Olympic Games and the World Cup?
Call us old-fashioned, but our view is tax subsidies should be reserved for people who truly need it. The $5 million going to the Super Bowl committee might not break the public fisc. But lavishing hard-earned tax dollars on something as awash in money as Super Bowl celebrations is a fumble any way you look at it.