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One team won, and one team lost.

Please select a response:

1) Yay, winning team! You are my chosen team, and your victory positively affects me. All your hard work has paid off, and I am very proud of you. Boo, losing team, you come from a region I despise or have no attachment to. I don't like you, and I am glad about your misfortune. Watching you be sad makes all this better for me.

2) Boo winning team! You and your fans shouldn't enjoy this moment at all. Your ability in this chosen sport is lacking, and your winning was some combination of luck and biased officials. I am angry with you for winning instead of losing. It's okay to lose the team! My support of you continues through this hard time. Next year will be better because a combination of practice and teamwork will bring you to victory.

3) Turn off the AI, and let’s get on with this newsletter!

Super Bowl Statistics

We’ve already gone over cheapflation, so there’s no reason to factor in how much you spent on tortilla chips and chicken wings this year.

There’s bigger money moving around during the biggest sporting event of the year - next to the Westminster Dog Show. Let’s look at some of the money this game generates on and off the field.

Don’t Hate the Player

Let’s start with the people who matter most this Super Bowl - the cheerleaders. Depressingly, they only average from $75-100 per game, an hourly rate for time spent at each game, and NO Superbowl bonuses whatsoever.

Sharing the field with them are the reasonably and not excessively paid athletes—the highest paid of whom, surprisingly, do not date Taylor Swift. It's Jawaan Taylor, whose 2025 salary is $19.5 million! 

NFL players average 11 hours per day, 6 days a week during the season, and in the off-season, the weeks are less structured but average about 5 hours per day, 6 days a week. This means Jawaan pulled in a super chill $7,812.50/hr. AND this isn’t including the $171,000 he could get as a bonus if he wins the Superbowl. Sorry cheerleaders.

My Precious

You can’t talk about the Super Bowl without talking about the ONE RING. Well, there are actually multiple rings since all 53 players, coaches, and team executives get one, but not the cheerleaders. Sorry again. Even lesser-valued rings are given to full-time staff members with smaller roles.  

Each ring’s value varies from $30,000 to $50,000. The NFL supplements $5,000 to $7,000, with the rest of the cost coming from the team.

That value goes up if a player falls on rough times and decides to auction off their rings in the future. In 2020, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, sold his ring for $1 million. When you have everything…

City Limits

Being the host city for the Super Bowl is also very lucrative. Last year, the Superbowl generated $1 billion in revenue for the city of Las Vegas. This excludes the shady cash-only purchases fans made while visiting Sin City 

The average fan spent $2,660, double what the average tourist spends while there. Spending on hotels and local businesses generated an estimated $33.6 million in taxes for state and local governments. What happens in Vegas, stay in Vegas - including your cash.

NFL - Never Freaking Losing

Let’s see what the evil organization pulling the strings and writing the script makes from this event. No, not the Illuminati - the NFL. However, I am sure the Venn diagram for both is a circle.

League-branded partnerships generate real revenue, excluding the tens of millions of dollars spent on merchandise before and during the big game. Consulting firm IEG estimates it to be up to $1.8 billion.

But that is not all the money involved here; the tentacles of this football octopus spread in every direction. A quick breakdown of some of the money generated and their sources are:

• Ticket sales: $66.5 million

• TV Rights: $3 billion annually is split between FOX, CBS, and NBC, which rotate the air rights to the Super Bowl.

• Ad Sales: Each 30-second ad spot costs $8 million this year. (This may seem exorbitant, but they have an estimated return on investment of $4.60 per dollar spent)

Rising Cost of Super Bowl Ads

Cost of Fandom

EDITOR’S NOTE: The colors red and white in this picture are purely coincidental and do not represent the preferred team of those at Listen Money Matters.

So you want to go to the Super Bowl, huh? Well, that’s going to cost you.

This year, as of Sunday afternoon, it costs $4,708 to get into the Caesars Superdome. The most expensive tickets go for $24,995.

To get yourself to New Orleans, you will see a 3.8% increase in flight tickets compared to last year. Don’t celebrate for long because hotel prices in New Orleans this year averaged $475 per night - up 85.6%

All Bets Are Off

Unsurprisingly, the Superbowl is the most-wagered sporting event in the United States, and the total amount bet increases yearly. For Superbowl LIX, the volume of betting participation is projected to increase 35% over last year, from $16 billion in 2024 to a staggering $23.2 billion for the Eagles/Chiefs showdown.

Since 1991, the Nevada State Gaming Control Board has tracked bets on the big game. The house has been profitable every year except 1995, when the 49ers bested the Chargers, leading bettors to collectively win $396,674.  

The house was also beaten in 2008 when the Giants narrowly beat the Patriots (who had not lost a single game in the lead-up to the Super Bowl that year). That year, bettors walked away with a record $2.57 million.

Although I am sure you feel good about your 12-leg parley that could net you tens of thousands, it is probably best to save money to buy a $17 beer and $36 “Super Bowl Ultimate Nachos" being served at the Superdome.

Being a fan isn’t cheap, but in our opinion, money is best spent on experiences that help create memories instead of physical things. So, if you have to be there in person to see your team win the championship, money shouldn’t matter as long as you don’t have to take out a personal loan.

Bonus Section: How Much to Repair the City of Philadelphia?

There is one truth with this Superbowl: no matter who wins or loses, the city of Philadelphia will get destroyed by its fans.

This is so true that the mayor recently made a preemptive plea to the city's residents to refrain from climbing the poles. 

When the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, they celebrated like the rest of us: taking to the streets, flipping cars, and setting fires to show the world how happy they were.

Although numbers of the estimated costs of destruction at the hands of alcohol-infused Philadelphians are hard to come by, the victory parade alone cost 2.7 million dollars.$2 million of that expense is being paid out to police officers working overtime, most likely after pulling double shifts to grease up poles and calm the happy mob after the victory on Superbowl night.

“If football taught me anything about BUSINESS, it is that you win the game one play at a time.”

— Frank Tarkenton

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Money Talks

Kansas City Chiefs or Philadelphia Eagles?

Let us know your answers so we can feature them in a future newsletter!

May the cash flow always be in your favor,

Andrew and Lou - the Funny Money team