Every year, the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) subsidizes the NFL's Pro Bowl, the annual all-star game that doesn't earn great ratings and struggles to maintain player participation. A new study by two economics professors at College of the Holy Cross reveals that spending is a much poorer deal for Hawaiian taxpayers than the HTA claims.
In 2014, for example, the HTA paid the NFL $4 million for the right to host the event and covered an additional $152,000 in event costs. The NFL kept all the ticket and media profits from the event. In return, the agency claimed, up to 47,000 additional tourists visited the Hawaiian islands to watch the game, bringing their money with them.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Damian Barr shares his favourite booksThe Week Recommends The writer and broadcaster picks works by Alice Walker, Elif Shafak and others
-
The Great Mughals: a 'treasure trove' of an exhibitionThe Week Recommends The V&A's new show is 'spell-binding'
-
Big Tech critic Brendan Carr is Trump's FCC pickIn the Spotlight The next FCC commissioner wants to end content moderation practices on social media sites
-
Europe roiled by attacks on Israeli soccer fansSpeed Read Israeli fans supporting the Maccabi Tel Aviv team clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters in 'antisemitic attacks,' Dutch authorities said
-
New York wins WNBA title, nearly nabs World SeriesSpeed Read The Yankees with face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the upcoming Fall Classic
-
Caitlin Clark the No. 1 pick in bullish WNBA DraftSpeed Read As expected, she went to the Indiana Fever
-
South Carolina ends perfect season with NCAA titleSpeed Read The women's basketball team won a victory over superstar Caitlin Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes
-
Iowa's Caitlin Clark breaks NCAA scoring recordspeed read College basketball star Caitlin Clark set the new record in Iowa's defeat of Ohio State
-
Eight-year-old Brit Bodhana Sivanandan makes chess historySpeed Read Sivanandan has been described as a 'phenomenon' by chess masters
-
Watch Simone Biles win her record 8th US gymnastics championshipSpeed Read
-
Spain beats England 1-0 to win its first Women's World CupSpeed Read
