Inglewood To Host Super Bowl LV In 2021
INGLEWOOD (CBSLA.com) — Inglewood will host Super Bowl LV in 2021, the National Football League announced Tuesday.
The game will kick off in the $2.6 billion NFL stadium and entertainment complex scheduled to open in 2019.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke said the league's commitment to an L.A. Super Bowl helps validate his investment in Inglewood.
"It shows that the communities and the owners who are willing to make these investments and stick their necks out, if you will, that it is worthwhile and they believe in them long term," Kroenke said.
The Los Angeles area has not played host to a Super Bowl since 1993.
"The City of Inglewood is thrilled to be the host for the most watched, single sporting event in the world, Super Bowl LV," said Inglewood Mayor James Butts. "Working with the City of Los Angeles, we intend to help make it the greatest fan experience in the history of the NFL. After a 20 year hiatus, professional football is back."
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti praised the owners' decision to bring the Super Bowl To Inglewood.
"Los Angeles is built to host the Super Bowl," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. "We helped forge this great American tradition as its very first host in 1967, and now, at long last, we're bringing it back where it belongs."
According to the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, which helped spearhead the effort to land the game, the area's bid includes 60,000 hotel room nights, with the possibility of generating up to 100,000 total room nights.
Local merchants are betting on the big game to bring a big boom in business.
But Smith College sports economist Andrew Zimbalist advised against being so quick to bet on an economic win for the cities overall.
He said host cities should only expect to bring in 0 to $30 million - a far cry from the NFL's typical estimates of half a billion dollars. "They put out these economic studies. They put out a lot of PR support for the notion that this is the cat's meow for a local city, and people basically buy what's in the media," Zimbalist said.
In fact, a report by the city of San Francisco about this year's Super Bowl there found it had only a $2 million dollar surplus and spent 50 percent more than expected.
Washington University Sports Economist Patrick Rishe was hired by the Bay Area Host Committee to study the economic impact there.
He found the Super Bowl brought about $100 million in new spending and said the big game will probably be worth it in L.A.
"I suspect it's going to be similar in terms of the overall dollar amount. But I think it's really interesting that's it's going to really bring home the fact that, again, Los Angeles has football," Rishe said.
Although L.A. is no rookie when it comes to the Super Bowl. The very first super bowl was held at the Memorial Coliseum in 1967.
Since then, L.A. has hosted six more with the latest in 19-93 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
