Super Bowl LVIII could bring over $1BILLION to Las Vegas as thousands of 49ers and Chiefs fans – including Taylor Swift – head for the bright lights in the biggest event in Sin City’s HISTORY

Even for a city that hosts Muhammad Ali fights, Formula 1 races and the Stanley Cup finals, the upcoming Super Bowl can easily be considered the biggest sporting event in Las Vegas’ 119-year history.

Add in a celebrity-laden crowd, likely including Travis Kelce’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, and the Feb. 11 Chiefs-49ers matchup should go down as Adult Disneyland’s biggest spectacle, showcasing Elvis Presley’s wedding. 1967 with Priscilla and Evel Knievel’s failed motorcycle jump. Caesars Palace fountain later that year.

So it’s no surprise that Super Bowl LVIII also represents a historic windfall for Sin City. The 68,000 fans attending the game are expected to boost revenues by $600 million, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority claims. Additionally, according to Jeremy Aguero, member of the Las Vegas Super Bowl executive committee, other attendees looking to watch the game at the city’s sportsbooks, bars, restaurants and theaters should push the economic impact above $1 billion.

That’s certainly not unusual for the Super Bowl, which traditionally means a nine- or 10-figure bonus for the host city. A year ago, Super Bowl LVII generated an economic impact of $1.3 billion for the Phoenix area, according to Arizona State researchers.

Similarly, Las Vegas already enjoyed a $1.2 billion boost from Formula 1 in 2023 when more than 315,000 racing fans descended on southern Nevada in November for a week of practices, qualifying sessions and the first Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Of course, Las Vegas is already used to being packed with tourists, unlike previous Super Bowl hosts like Detroit (1982, 2006) and Indianapolis (2012). But even with the city’s traditional influx of visitors during Super Bowl weekend, officials still expect 150,000 additional tourists, for a total of about 450,000.

“We already knew that Super Bowl weekend is already the second biggest weekend after New Year’s Eve, so we already have 300,000 people in town for Super Bowl weekend,” said Sam Joffray, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Super Bowl Committee. The Las Vegas Review-Journal a year ago. “We’ve gathered another 125,000 to 150,000 people who will come to town for the actual game itself.”

As a result, hotel prices in Las Vegas have reached historic highs.

While the average nightly hotel rate for this weekend in Las Vegas will be around $161, that figure is expected to reach $391 per night next weekend, according to travel platform Hopper.

Another analyst estimate from STR, Inc. predict that the average nightly hotel price will be $573 between Friday, February 9 and Super Bowl Sunday. The previous record for hotel prices in a Super Bowl city was set in Miami in 2020, when Chiefs and 49ers fans earned an average price of $559 per night.

And according to UNLV director of business and economic research Stephen Miller, the economic impact hardly ends there.

“The market is working, and what’s actually happening is it’s affecting the Airbnbs as well.” Miller told the local ABC affiliate. ‘Uber is a market-driven price, so depending on demand the price can rise considerably.

“What’s taxed in Vegas stays in Vegas,” Miller continued. ‘You have people who actually do the work in the supply chain. They get paid, and if they live here in Vegas, they spend money in Vegas.”

It helps that Las Vegas welcomes conspicuously wealthy tourists — people who can afford an average ticket price of $12,000, according to Seat Geek.

With taxes and fees, a couple attending the game can expect to pay well over $20,000, not including about $30 for two beers and a couple of hot dogs at the stadium.

“The visitor who comes to a Super Bowl is typically a visitor who spends more money than our typical visitor,” Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, told the Review-Journal.

The winnings could set records at sportsbooks and casinos, where wealthy guests are expected to dramatically boost Las Vegas’ overall revenue this weekend.

“We will be hosting tens of thousands of visitors this weekend and it is a great way to combine the world’s biggest entertainment show, the Super Bowl, with the entertainment of Las Vegas,” said Caesars Ken. Fuchs told the Las Vegas sun. “With all the excitement and everything going on, we think we’ll break records for the Nevada event.”

And the locals are not limiting the economic boost to one weekend.

Instead, they hope to impress visiting entrepreneurs in the sports, technology and manufacturing sectors to encourage them to expand to Las Vegas.

“We want to take the opportunity to get the world’s attention… to use this as an opportunity to target companies and executives to bring them here,” political consultant and founder of RedRock Strategies Ryan Erwin told the Review Journal. “To use the Super Bowl as a way to show off the wonderful things Las Vegas and this community have to offer.

“We want to be at the top of everyone’s list when they think about where I want to grow, expand or create my business,” he added.

Additionally, the seminars and sales pitches used by local officials and investors ahead of Super Bowl LVIII can be repurposed for the city’s growing menu of sporting events.

“We want to create a blueprint that will guide every major event in Las Vegas,” Erwin said. “For Formula 1, if we end up with the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the NBA All-Star Game, or whatever major event that happens here, how can we use that to translate that into economic development around this community.”

And for a city that has already attracted the NFL, NHL and WNBA, with the Oakland Athletics reportedly on the way in 2028, such a blueprint could mean exponentially higher profits for Las Vegas in years to come.