THE SCOOP
Marijuana is on the NFL’s banned substance list. But maybe not for long.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll agrees that the NFL should look into medicinal marijuana as a means of taking the best possible care of its players.
While not explicitly claiming to favor it, Carroll answered a question about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s recent comments on the topic by making it clear he thinks it’s an avenue worth pursuing.
Goodell said last week that the league could look into allowing medical marijuana if science showed it could be used to treat concussions.
“I would say that we have to explore and find ways to make our game a better game and take care of our players in whatever way possible,” Carroll said at a news conference Monday following his team’s first practice of Super Bowl week. “Regardless of what other stigmas might be involved, we have to do this because the world of medicine is doing this.”
Goodell exercised caution in his remarks last week.
“We will follow medicine and if they determine this could be a proper usage in any context, we will consider that,” Goodell said. “Our medical experts are not saying that right now.”
ECONOMIC BOOST?
Will the snowy New York City area really reap an estimated $600 million economic boost from the Super Bowl? Probably not.
Despite such lofty predictions, sports economists say the financial impact of the Super Bowl could fall far below expectations, in part because visitors often spend their cash at NFL-sponsored or corporate events rather than at tourist attractions. Some hotels say Super Bowl bookings are running behind what they hoped for, prompting them to ease demands for minimum stays and room deposits. And academic studies show that at best, past Super Bowls generated tens of millions, not hundreds of millions.
“Move the decimal point one place to the left,” said Robert Baade, a professor at Lake Forest College in Illinois. “The NFL says $500 or $600 million? I think $50 to $60 million would be a generous appraisal of what the Super Bowl generates.”
A study conducted by Baade in 2000 showed that the average Super Bowl from the 1970s through the late ’90s only accounted for about $32 million per game at the most in increased economic activity. The study, which examined tax revenue and other economic factors before and after the Super Bowl, concluded that the 1999 Super Bowl in Miami, for example, only contributed about $37 million to the South Florida economy. The NFL, by comparison, claimed that 1999 game between the Denver Broncos and Falcons generated $396 million, the study said.
AD RATES
The cost of a 30-second commercial on Sunday? $4 million.
The cost five years ago? $2.8 million
The cost in 2002? $1.9 million.
The cost at the first Super Bowl: $42,000
FUTURE SITES
Feb. 1, 2015, Glendale, Ariz. Sunday forecast: 74 degrees
Feb. 7, 2016, San Francisco. Sunday forecast: 60 degrees
Feb. 5, 2017, Houston. Sunday forecast: 65 degrees
— Compiled by Ray Cox
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