Molly McGrath Moving From CFB to NFL Coverage at ESPN
The Super Bowl is more than just the championship decider. The NFL’s crown jewel is massive in every way—and Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans is no different.
The halftime show is one of the world’s largest concerts. The commercial breaks are the one time every year that the world’s biggest companies can showcase their brand to more than a hundred million people simultaneously. Tens of thousands of fans shell out to fly and watch the game at the host city—many even arriving more than a week before the event. Billions of dollars are wagered on the outcome and on some of the highest-paid players in the league.
Those details separate the Super Bowl business from any other major sporting event. Here are six data visualizations to summarize the grandeur of the Big Game.
Viewership
Fox has high standards to live up to as it broadcasts Super Bowl LIX this year. On top of the Super Bowl debut of Tom Brady (as a broadcaster, of course), the prior two games set viewership records. Last year’s game between the Chiefs and 49ers set an all-time high of 123.7 million viewers on CBS, according to Nielsen, up 7% over the previous year, which averaged a then-record 115.1 million on Fox.
However, it is important to note Nielsen only began including nationwide out-of-home viewership numbers—counting broadcasts in public spaces such as bars, airports, and gyms—in 2021, which could explain the boost in viewership in recent years. Super Bowls have also been distributed in platforms outside of traditional over-the-air television, including streaming services and simulcasts.
For instance, last year’s game carried by CBS added 2.3 million viewers from the Spanish-language broadcast on Univision and 1.2 million from the SpongeBob SquarePants simulcast on Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite. This year, Tubi, a Fox-owned free streaming service, will air the game this year and its viewership numbers will be counted by Nielsen.
Ticket Prices
The average price to get into this year’s game at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans is $7,388 as of Jan. 27, according to TickPick. That’s about $1,800 cheaper than last year’s game, which was the most-expensive game of the last decade, played at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Super Bowl LIX is still the second-most-expensive of the last 10 years, though that price may fluctuate as game day approaches. New Orleans is also just a few weeks removed from the New Year’s Day attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people and injured dozens of others.
Cost of a Hotel Room
The average hotel rate in New Orleans is $650 per night, down from Las Vegas’s 10-year high of $747 per night, according to data provided by hotel market research firm STR as of Jan. 17. That average price would still be the second-highest of the past decade, though like ticket prices, the figure can change as the event nears. According to Hotels.com, the average booking window for the Super Bowl is about two to three weeks before the event.
Hotels in the Business District, the neighborhood closest to the stadium, are averaging about $1,200 per night. However, prices for 2- and 3-star hotels are averaging around $400 to $700 per night.
The least-expensive average hotel price was 2021 in Tampa at $249 per night, though the game had a limited capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also the first time a host city made the Super Bowl, which could have played a role: The same thing happened the next year when the Rams won the Super Bowl in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, and the average hotel price in the expensive city was $374—an average number on this list.
Cost of a Commercial
Fox began selling a 30-second commercial for Super Bowl LIX for $7 million, which would have been the same price for the third year in a row, according to USA Today. However, according to AdAge, the sale price for this year’s Big Game has ballooned to $8 million. That cost is about 88% higher than it was 10 years ago.
The price of the same ad spot in Super Bowl I cost just $37,500, around $370,000 when adjusted for inflation. A 30-second ad spot during Super Bowl XVIII—when Apple dropped the commercial “1984” that is considered one of the most iconic ads of all time—was $368,200, or about $1.2 million when adjusted for inflation.
Big Game Betting
Sports betting has grown exponentially since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal law that essentially banned nationwide betting in 2018. According to the American Gaming Association, the estimated legal sports betting handle—the amount of money wagered—was $23.1 billion, more than five times as much as the $4.28 billion estimate just three years earlier.
AGA will release estimates for Super Bowl LIX on Tuesday.
Star Salaries
The Eagles and Chiefs have invested heavily in their Super Bowl–worthy rosters.
Kansas City awarded quarterback Patrick Mahomes a 10-year, $450 million deal in 2020, which remains the largest contract in NFL history, though the average annual value (AAV) of $45 million per year has turned into a bargain: Annual QB price tags went up to $60 million this season.
Mahomes’s relatively low salary—and previous contract restructuring—allowed the Chiefs to invest in pieces around him. Chris Jones, Jawaan Taylor, Creed Humphrey, and Travis Kelce are all in the top three for AAV in their respective positions.
Philadelphia gave Jalen Hurts a five-year, $255 million contract in 2023, which at the time was the highest AAV for any player ($51 million). Saquon Barkley, the team’s MVP candidate this year, has an AAV of $13.25 million, which is top three among running backs but does not crack the Eagles’ top five—a sign of the plunging RB market.
Eagles GM Howie Roseman built a stacked roster on both ends by creating salary cap magic, using tricks such as adding void years to the contracts of most of the team’s best players.
