The closest I got to the source of the numbers was this: Alice McGillion, a spokeswoman for the New York/New Jersey Super Bowl Host Committee, using careful, passive-voice syntax, said the estimate was commissioned several years ago as part of the local bid to host the event, which takes place next Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. But, Ms. McGillion added, “a decision was made” not to release the study that generated the numbers. She could not say why it was never released, who created it, what the underlying assumptions were, or even whether it represented just benefits or included costs. After a while, she stopped returning my calls and emails.

Which is perhaps not unexpected, because virtually every time a government or athletic organization describes the economic benefits of hosting a major sports event, economists pick apart the calculations as flawed, myopic or outright fraudulent.

Usually the criticism is that the number leaves out all kinds of costs, both direct (like security, sanitation and transportation, typically paid for by taxpayers) and indirect (such as what kinds of economic activity and tourism did not happen because the area was snarled with football traffic). The method used to estimate the local benefit for New Orleans, host for the Super Bowl last year, for example, was widely mocked. This time around, of course, there is not even a silly method to mock.

Economists interviewed for this column expressed skepticism about the widely cited estimate of $550 million to $600 million, whatever its source. Philip Porter, an economics professor at the University of South Florida, estimated that the benefits would be “zero,” because “the people who come to these events aren’t buying what the local economy sells.” Still, most economists with whom I spoke — like John Tepper Marlin, who used to produce economic impact numbers for the New York City government — acknowledged that some businesses would most likely accrue some benefits, perhaps on an order of magnitude lower than what local officials are projecting.