Host Committee Finds $370M Net Spending During Super Bowl

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The numbers are in, and Minnesota exceeded expectations. Minnesota's Super Bowl brought in more money than expected.

The event was set to bring in $338 million. New numbers show it actually brought in $370 million.

New numbers look at the money visitors spent during the 10-day event. Most of the visitors traveled from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, followed by Florida, California and Texas.

For 10 days, Nicollet Mall was an international hot spot despite the cold temps, home of Super Bowl Live.  Those temps were actually a good thing for a pub in the center of it all.

Shane Higgins is the general manager at Brit's Pub.

"It was so cold out there it was natural for them to come into Brit's and belly up exactly, yeah," Higgins said.

Brit's quadrupled its normal business, beating its all-time daily sales record twice.

"Talking to bartenders, servers who said it was a long week, stressful week but it was worth it," Higgins said.

Brit's benefited from visitors with deep pockets. A typical tourist to the area spends $124 per day. Super Bowl LII visitors spent $608 per day.

Kenneth McGill is with Rockport Analytics, who studied the numbers.

"It has one of the largest economic impacts of any Super Bowl in recent history," McGill said.

He helped crunch the numbers. It was more fruitful than the past two games in Houston and San Francisco. Hotels tripled their business, and a sizable chunk of visitors rented out Minnesotans homes for the weekend.

But the weather did come with consequences.

"Things like snow removal, utilities were much higher than we've seen in other Super Bowls," McGill said.

Although the weather came with a price, it wasn't a deterrent. Maureen Hooley Bausch is the CEO of Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee.

"The most important thing is that people new to Minnesota intend to come back," Bausch said.

More than 90 percent of visitors say they want to come back to Minnesota.

Another interesting number: 88 cents on the dollar stayed in Minnesota. Not something you usually see with Super Bowls in other cities. That was because of a concerted effort to use local vendors.

To pay for the festivities, the committee raised $50 million via private donations. They also borrowed $7.1 million to pay for security, and say they will pay that back.