Arizona Expecting Super Bowl Tax Boost

PHOENIX (AP) _ Arizona's state treasury will receive an estimated $3.6 million to $5.5 million from sales taxes on spending by visitors attracted to the Phoenix area by the <a href="http://www.azsuperbowl.com/"

Friday, November 9th 2007, 10:13 am

By: News On 6

PHOENIX (AP) _ Arizona's state treasury will receive an estimated $3.6 million to $5.5 million from sales taxes on spending by visitors attracted to the Phoenix area by the Super Bowl, according to an analysis by the legislative budget staff.

The National Football League's championship game will be played in February 3 at University of Phoenix Stadium in suburban Glendale.

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee's staff said its estimate was based on assumptions that 90% of the fans attending the game will be from out of state and that 17,000 fans would visit from out of state without attending the game.

Other assumptions were that visitors would stay an average of 3.6 nights in hotels and visitors would spend an average of between $233 and $360 per day on lodging, meals, local travel and other purchases.

The budget staff said its analysis did not include indirect economic effects, ``not all of which are easily agreed upon, and in some cases are not taxed.''

The budget staff also said it excluded any possible increases in income taxes and employment or any discount for tourism revenue displaced by the Super Bowl during a time when area hotels are generally about 80 percent full.

``Some of these visitors and their associated revenue will be displaced by Super Bowl visitors,'' the analysis stated.