February 12, 2024

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After the second overtime in Super Bowl history (and three seconds away from the first double overtime), the Chiefs are champions yet again, and their win over the 49ers moves Kansas City even higher up the hierarchy of NFL franchises. … After debut hosting, will Las Vegas become part of a regular Super Bowl rotation? … The stage is set for yet another New Orleans Super Bowl in 2025. … And questions around media and stadiums are set to dominate the NFL’s offseason story lines.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]]

Kansas City’s Back-to-Back Super Bowl Wins Set Up Huge Financial Growth Opportunity [[link removed]]

Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

The Chiefs beat the 49ers 25-22 in overtime to win Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday to become the first NFL franchise to clinch back-to-back Lombardi Trophies since the New England Patriots during the 2003 and ’04 seasons.

Despite the unprecedented success under coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes—which includes a third Super Bowl victory in 2019, another AFC championship in ’20, and an appearance in the conference title game each of the past six years—the Chiefs were most recently valued at $4.3 billion on Forbes’ preseason list [[link removed]], just 23rd out of the NFL’s clubs. But the Hunt family, which founded the franchise in 1959, now has even more ammo to capitalize on to grow off-field revenues.

Just as Mahomes, with three Super Bowl victories himself, now chases Tom Brady’s seven rings, the Chiefs will look to mimic the growth experienced by Brady’s Patriots, which ascended [[link removed]] from 10th in NFL valuation rankings in 2000, before Brady and coach Bill Belichick arrived that same year, all the way up to No. 2 after six Lombardi Trophies, the last of which came in ’18. (New England is currently valued at $7 billion, behind the Cowboys’ $9 billion estimate.)

The win, which ties Kansas City with the with the Packers and the Giants at four Super Bowls apiece, should also give Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt even more influence among NFL owners—not that he needed it. Hunt is already chairman of the NFL finance committee, which influences who can buy and invest in teams. He is also a member of the league’s international and personal conduct committees, as well as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s chairmen’s committee.

But for now, Clark, Mahomes, and the entire Chiefs organization have a parade to get ready for.

Super Bowl’s Las Vegas Debut: Was It Good for the City and the NFL? [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The debut of Las Vegas as a Super Bowl host city is officially over, after a week unlike any other before it. The NFL fully embraced the home of sports betting, complete with league branding taking over casinos and sportsbooks, as well as some of the hottest bars and nightclubs.

Now, the question is: Will the NFL bring its title game back to Sin City? And if so, when? It could return as soon as 2028 (Super Bowl hosts are set through ’27). The NFL loved Las Vegas as a host city due to its world-class hotels, entertainment, and dining. But there is a powerful business element in the Nevada desert that doesn’t want the Big Game coming back for an encore, sources say. Namely, casino operators who’ve run Vegas behind the scenes since the days of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack.

For billion-dollar casinos, the Super Bowl attracts mostly the wrong kind of clientele. They want to attract wealthy gambling “whales” from around the world looking to spend millions at the betting table—not Joe and Jane Chiefs fans from Kansas City and San Francisco.

Organizers like the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee will surely argue about the much-heralded economic impact (often hard-to-verify figures in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars) generated by the Big Game. But casino operators are not impressed by visitors spending money at other local sporting events or souvenir and convenience stores. They want that money spent on slots, blackjack, and craps tables.

Host committees need to raise tens of millions in public and private funding when bidding for the Super Bowl. Word is that Las Vegas organizers already had some issues securing that funding this year, due to the city’s slim corporate base. The next time they ask casinos for money to host another Super Bowl, they might get a firm no, sources tell FOS.

Too Much Fun?

The hype around Super Bowl LVIII showed that if any city can swallow something as big as the Super Bowl, it’s Las Vegas. U2 continued its high-demand residency at the Sphere, and a plethora of other sports tried to capitalize [[link removed]] on the influx of people—from hockey to golf to UFC and even slap fighting.

If you were in the area around Allegiant Stadium, you knew the Super Bowl was in town. But some other parts of the city remained virtually untouched by the NFL. It reminiscent of the first—and only—time the Super Bowl touched down in New York City in 2014. If you weren’t around the NFL activities in Times Square or the league hotel in Midtown, you’d have barely been aware the Big Game was in town. In Vegas, there was not a typical central gathering spot—what the league used to unofficially call Super Bowl Central. There was a sense that those in town were simply going from casino to casino.

Despite the unique challenges and offerings presented by Las Vegas, it’s still hard to see the city not having a chance to get another Super Bowl. It is great advertising for the area and continues to legitimize Vegas as a booming sports town. It’s not unreasonable to think the Super Bowl could return once every eight to 10 years, even becoming part of the NFL’s unofficial rotation of regular stops each February.

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How AI and Cybersecurity Are Transforming Sports

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Reserve your spot [[link removed]] now and join us on Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. ET for a conversation about how cybersecurity is shaping the future of sports.

Thanks, Las Vegas. New Orleans, You’re Up Next [[link removed]]

Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

With the first Las Vegas Super Bowl now behind us, the Big Easy will get the next crack at hosting the NFL’s biggest affair—for the 11th time. Super Bowl LIX will mark the first time the game is back in New Orleans since the “Blackout Bowl” in 2013, when a portion of the Superdome’s lights went out for more than half an hour.

Here’s the current status of upcoming Super Bowl hosts:

2025: Caesars Superdome, New Orleans 2026: Levi’s Stadium, San Francisco (Santa Clara) 2027: SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles 2028 (and beyond): TBD Bigger Than Just One Game?

Next year’s game could be a key showcase for New Orleans, which has hosted 10 previous Super Bowls and six Final Fours but is facing an uncertain future around the Sugar Bowl’s long-term place as part of the College Football Playoff. New Orleans will host CFP quarterfinal games in 2024 and ’25, but nothing is guaranteed for ’26 and beyond.

This past fall, Sugar Bowl Committee CEO Jeff Hundley lamented [[link removed]] about the rising costs of being part of the expanding CFP, and organizers launched a website to elicit donations. Perhaps another successful Super Bowl in New Orleans could remind college football stakeholders of the city’s ability to successfully welcome big events.

Three Burning Questions for the NFL’s Offseason [[link removed]]

Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports

With the 2023 NFL season officially over, the league’s focus quickly shifts to the offseason, which brings several major questions around media and stadiums.

How much more streaming is on the way?

The 2023 season brought a number of major exclusive streaming firsts: A Black Friday game [[link removed]] on Amazon Prime Video, a regular-season and playoff game on Peacock [[link removed]], and the transition of NFL Sunday Ticket from DirecTV to YouTube [[link removed]]. Still, there could be even more room for streaming in the NFL’s broadcast schedule, particularly around international games. A broadcast partner has not been announced for the NFL’s debut game in Brazil, featuring the Eagles on Friday night of kickoff weekend, and annual games in Europe could create their own new streaming package [[link removed]]. NFL executives have previously told [[link removed]] Front Office Sports that NFL+ could be a landing spot for some exclusive game broadcasts. Will 2024 bring even more streaming? That should be answered in May, when the league announces next season’s full schedule, if not sooner.

What teams, if any, will make progress on stadium deals?

The Bears [[link removed]] and Commanders [[link removed]] are in the process of searching for sites to build new stadiums, while the Jaguars [[link removed]] are working on completing a deal that would see the city fund half of their $2 billion project to renovate EverBank Stadium. The more time that passes without a deal for any of the above franchises simply means a longer wait until a new or renovated venue is completed. All three will certainly be using this offseason to solidify their futures.

Will the viewership spike extend into the spring?

Viewership during the NFL’s 2023 regular season (17.9 million viewers per game) was the league’s highest since ’15. That growth continued during the postseason as games during the wild-card, divisional, and conference championship rounds averaged 38.5 million viewers—the most ever for the playoffs. Super Bowl LVIII viewership will be released later this week, and the NFL will look to keep things up over the next few months. The league has yet to turn the four-day NFL Scouting Combine, which begins later this month, into must-see TV on the NFL Network,, but the NFL draft, which takes place in April, has become one of the premier sporting events in the U.S. Last year’s first round telecast drew [[link removed]] 11.29 million viewers (up 13% from ’22), boosting the three-day event to an average of six million viewers (up 12% from ’22).

The Other Big Winners

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

There were a total of eight confirmed Super Bowl wagers of at least $1 million, as reported [[link removed]] by Ben Fawkes. Two were placed on the Chiefs and six on the 49ers:

$1.1M on Chiefs +2 (BetMGM Sportsbook) $1M on Chiefs +2 (Circa Sportsbook) $1M on 49ers 1H -0.5 (PointsBet Sportsbook) $1.1M on 49ers -1.5 (Circa Sportsbook) $1.1M on 49ers -2 (BetMGM Sportsbook) $1M on 49ers -2 (Fanatics Sportsbook) $1M on 49ers ML (-120) (Caesars Sportsbook) $1M on 49ers ML (-130) (BetMGM Sportsbook)

SPONSORED BY CISCO

Game-Changing Tech Alliances

At first glance, the NFL and the tech industry may seem worlds apart. But behind the scenes there are a handful of surprising parallels, namely: the strategic depth and teamwork essential for success.

Few understand this overlap better than Cisco [[link removed]].

Before the 2023 NFL season, Cisco teamed up with the league to launch the NFL IT Apprenticeship Program, allowing one graduate from Cisco’s esteemed Networking Academy to work alongside some of the world’s best sports technologists.

This initiative marks a major step toward weaving Networking Academy’s technical education into the fabric of the NFL ecosystem—and the first of many steps.

To explore how the NFL and Cisco are empowering both professional and former players with technical career opportunities, read the full article here [[link removed]].

Front Office Today They Said What?

Oakland A's

“There’s been no renderings. There’s been no announced financial plan. There’s been no architectural plan. There might be some secret [Oakland A’s owner] John Fisher thing out there that we don’t know about, but this is exactly what you went through with each of his failed attempts in the Bay Area.”

—The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami on the ongoing, slow-motion disaster that is the A’s planned move from Oakland to Las Vegas. To hear more about these onerous ownership decisions, check out the latest episode of Front Office Sports Today.

🎧 Listen and subscribe on Apple [[link removed]], Google [[link removed]], and Spotify [[link removed]].

Conversation Starters History was made at the Super Bowl. Check out [[link removed]] who became the first person to both play and referee in the Big Game. Private suites on Sunday cost a few pennies. See [[link removed]] what high-roller NFL fans got in the $200,000 to $1 million range. A hip-hop artist has secured the naming rights to the spring training home of the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros. See [[link removed]] who made the investment. Editors’ Picks The ‘Life-Changing’ Economy of Taylor Swift’s NFL Outfits [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]Appearing in Swift’s game-day wardrobe has been “life-changing” for small businesses. Tom Brady’s Post-Retirement Embrace of Las Vegas [[link removed]]by A.J. Perez [[link removed]]With business all over town, one partner says, “He’s going to be a great addition to the city.” Does the Vegas Super Bowl Make Economic Sense? Depends Where You Get Your Figures [[link removed]]by Daniel Kaplan [[link removed]]The game’s impact on an already bustling town is a thorny subject. How Two EDM-Loving Dudes Reinvented the Super Bowl Party [[link removed]]by Joseph Bien-Kahn [[link removed]]The inside story—replete with tigers and billionaires—of Medium Rare. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Sports Careers [[link removed]] Written by David Rumsey [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]], Daniel Kaplan [[link removed]], Michael McCarthy [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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