(The Center Square) – A new paper detailing the impact of hosting the NFL Draft on host cities called the 2022 draft a “disaster” for Las Vegas as the city had approximately 20,000 less hotel room nights than it would without the event.
While organizers of the annual event – including cities, tourism departments, the National Football League and teams – claim large benefits to being a host city, Las Vegas had the opposite. There were large negative effects on overall hotel room stays the day before the draft and also the first two nights of the event.
The numbers were detailed in a new paper from economist E. Frank Stephenson of Georgia’s Berry College, who shared the paper with The Center Square. Last year, Stephenson previously showed how the city had an increase in hotel room occupancy and rates during Super Bowl week and a hangover of decreased occupancy and rates in the days after while the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend had decreased occupancy in the week leading up to the race and a slight increase on Saturday.
Stephenson’s paper showed a large discrepancy across the country between what NFL Draft hosts claimed and what the hotel numbers showed occurred during the event. But the negative impacts on hotel stays during the event were more pronounced in Las Vegas than anywhere.
Stephenson used data from other large sporting events, including Raiders games, along with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour for comparison.
Raiders games lead to 6,300 more room nights on game days but no increase in rates or hotel revenue. The NHL’s Golden Knights and the WNBA’s Aces have no effect, Stephenson says.
Hosting the auto race, meanwhile, led to a decrease in room rentals exceeding 87,000.
“The Super Bowl and Formula One races both increased hotel revenue in Las Vegas but reduced hotel room rentals; thus, gains by hotels may have been at least partly offset by harms of other tourist-dependent businesses such as restaurants,” Stephenson wrote.
Swift’s tour dates showed no impact on hotel stays in the city while the gains in hotel revenue due to increased rates during the event was $3 million.
