TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Tampa's Cost For Hosting Game Nearly $1 Million

ADVERTISEMENT

By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

cwade@tampatrib.com

Published: February 1, 2009

TAMPA - Taxpayers will foot the bill for providing extra police and fire coverage at Super Bowl XLIII to make sure it goes off without any hitches.

The city of Tampa expects to spend as much as $1 million, possibly more, on security and other duties for tonight's National Football League championship game at Raymond James Stadium.

Mayor Pam Iorio has pledged to keep costs under control and said the return for the city in direct spending and national exposure means the money is well spent.

"We're hosting more than 100,000 visitors who are staying in our hotels, eating in our restaurants and spending money," Iorio said. "That's a big return on our investment."

Among the city's estimated costs for in-kind services for the event:

•$333,000 in overtime pay and special duty for the Tampa Police Department.

•$245,000 for providing traffic control at the stadium.

•$40,000 on landscaping of city-owned medians.

•$17,000 on overtime and extra duty for Tampa Fire Rescue.

•$700 in overtime pay for the city's code enforcement officers.

But the actual cost might not be known until weeks after the final whistle is blown.

Why?

Because those projections don't include paying city employees to carry extra duties such as cracking down on vendors selling fake NFL merchandise and additional traffic-control overtime, said Santiago Corrada, Tampa's manager of neighborhood services.

The NFL has pledged to reimburse the city $311,500 for related costs, Corrada said.

Although NFL and Tampa Bay area officials have predicted more than $300 million in direct spending from Super Bowl visitors and events, PricewaterhouseCoopers, in a recent study, forecast about half that amount will be spent.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT