Most of us are aware of the recently created Super Bowl City that was created to draw crowds to the massive event being held very close to us. While this may seem like an effective way to increase tourism in San Francisco, the reality is not so pretty. The City of San Francisco is paying 5 million dollars to make this happen (1). I personally find it ridiculous that the city would spent so much money on a party for one of the richest companies in the world. According to Forbes, the NFL’s revenue for 2013 was around 9 billion dollars. Should the NFL not be responsible for paying for their own party that is advertising their event that’s not even happening in San Francisco?
The price of the Super Bowl City is not the only concern people are having with it. For starters it has made people’s lives more difficult. My Mom was personally affected by Super Bowl City as she works a quarter mile away from it. Super Bowl City has made her usually hour long commute even longer to a grueling 2 hours.
My least favorite part of Super Bowl City is not the enormous cost or the stress and time taken away from the people who work nearby, but actually how the homeless have been treated. The homeless have been forced to leave the area and some were even given tickets and had their tents taken away (3). This is not addressing the issue of homelessness, but only making it more difficult for the people that are homeless.
So what do you think? Should San Francisco have held such an extravagant event? Was the treatment of the homeless necessary to create an image of cleanliness in the City?
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