In a given year, the Allstate Sugar Bowl generates an annual economic impact of nearly $250 million. But in years like 2020, when the organization hosts the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, those figures more than double to top half a billion dollars.
Organizers created the Sugar Bowl — first played on Jan. 1, 1935, pitting two of the nation’s top collegiate football teams against each other in postseason play — to draw tourists (and their cash) to the Crescent City during the lean winter months.
Eighty-five years after its inaugural contest, Jeff Hundley, who in July became just the seventh CEO of the Sugar Bowl, said his organization is more than fulfilling its mission as it presents one of the premier bowl games in the nation.
“The founding fathers, back in the 1930s — I don’t know that they envisioned anything like the numbers we’re seeing today,” Hundley said. “We’d like to think that we’re doing a good job in keeping with their original plan to create events that would help the city economically.”
With a focus on amateur sports tourism, the Sugar Bowl sponsors almost 60 events throughout the year, including the annual football game – which creates between $175 million and $200 million in spending each year — the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s state championships, AAU basketball tournaments, sailing regattas and the Crescent City Classic. In addition to visitors flocking to area hotels, restaurants and local attractions, the city and state receive upward of $25 million in direct taxes as a result of the Sugar Bowl’s efforts according to Hundley.
This month, the annual Sugar Bowl game, which features the best available teams from the Southeastern and Big XII conferences, will be played on January 1. The CFP National Championship, which has an economic impact of nearly $300 million, will follow on the 13th.
In addition to the monetary figures the bowl has been able to quantify, media coverage of the Sugar Bowl and National Championship Game provide added value for the city and state. There will be three weeks of multimedia promotion of the city as a tourism destination from the time bowl season kicks off after Christmas through the first fortnight of the year.
