Reality Check: The NFL's Super Perks
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Minnesota's Super Bowl setting is spectacular, and the state is expecting tens of millions of dollars in economic benefits from the big game.
But the NFL is getting something out of all of this, too: Millions of dollars in perks for holding Super Bowl 52 at U.S. Bank Stadium.
There are 153 pages of NFL demands in a document first obtained by the Star Tribune.
They include free police escorts for team owners, free hotel luxury suites and special tax breaks.
Taxpayers are subsidizing the Super Bowl for the NFL, which had $13.5 billion in revenue last year.
All tickets to the game and related events are tax exempt -- a perk worth $10.96 million.
The privately-funded Super Bowl committee will pick up the tab for local law enforcement and security costs: $6.78 million.
Because of a special state law, the extravagant perks Minnesota offered to get the Super Bowl -- five years ago -- is still secret.
We won't know everything the state and Minneapolis agreed to until after the game is over -- if ever.
The NFL asked for 35,000 free parking spaces, portable cellphone towers, all the money from Super Bowl ticket sales, exclusive NFL-only ATM machines, free professional-grade bowling alleys, access to area golf courses, 20 billboards promoting the Super Bowl -- and even the guarantee of a dedicated snowplow for teams to get to practice.
The Super Bowl Host Committee says the bid is a private negotiation with the NFL. And the people who put the bid together say they did not agree to all of the NFL's demands, but the bid will remain private.
