(Updated: February 3, 2016 10:16 PM)

The San Francisco 49ers’ home field is Levi’s Stadium where Super Bowl 50 will be played on February 7. So it is easy to to assume that the biggest football game of the year will be held in San Francisco. But Levi’s is in Santa Clara, California in the heart of Silicon Valley. Via U.S. Highway 101 the stadium is 43 miles away from San Francisco.

NFL activities based in Silicon Valley

On Sunday, January 31, both the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos landed in Mineta San Jose International Airport. San Jose is just east of Santa Clara. San Jose is now the tenth largest U.S. city with a 2014 population of 1,015,785, according to the U.S. Census. In comparison San Francisco is ranked 13th with 852,469 people.

The kick off event of this year’s Super Bowl week occurred in primetime at the “Super Bowl Opening Night” on Monday, February 1, at SAP Center in San Jose, replacing the traditional Tuesday morning Media Day.

During the week the Broncos are based in Santa Clara and practicing in nearby Palo Alto using Stanford University facilities. This instagram message is from Broncos outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware during the team’s first day of practice, February 1.



Ya'll young bucks may call me old, but ya'll still slow lol. #Flash A photo posted by Demarcus Ware (@demarcusware) on Feb 1, 2016 at 10:27pm PST

The Panthers stay in San Jose and practice at San Jose State University.

The City of Santa Clara will have its costs covered by the NFL.

Silicon Valley is one of the most affluent metropolitan areas in the U.S. According to U.S. Census data the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area had a 2014 median household income of $96,481, which is $34,548 greater than the median California household income and $42,824 higher than the U.S. median household income. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show San Jose metro workers had a 2014 mean wage of $75,770, which is $28,540 more than the U.S. average. The unemployment rate is 4.3 percent compared to California’s 6.2 percent.

San Jose has the third lowest apartment vacancy rate in the U.S. at 2.5 percent.

Holding the Super Bowl in a location of high wealth generates high expenditures. At one point in the secondary market for Super Bowl tickets the high-asking price reached $408,707.

San Francisco displacements

In San Francisco many homeless are displaced for Super Bowl City, a multi-stage event space on the city’s Embarcadero. Over 1 million visitors are expected to attend the events there.

This site is part of an estimated $5 million city-government total spending on Super Bowl events. To make room the city closed off about six blocks around Justin Herman –Embarcadero Plaza, where about 30 homeless people are typically present during the day, according to Sam Dodge, an assistant to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. The city has added 500 extra beds for the homeless and opened a 150-bed temporary shelter facility several miles from Super Bowl City. There are an estimated 6,700 homeless persons in San Francisco.

#SB50 Removal of homeless from site of Super Bowl City https://t.co/TlyIgwe5QK via @WSJ — David Mullin (@RD_Mullin) February 4, 2016

John Reddeer Pearce, 56, was displaced by Super Bowl City. He told Rory Carroll of Reuters, “What kinds of feelings do we have when someone asks you to leave, when we’re told … that you’re just some piece of garbage sitting around. Most of us are veterans. We’re the reason why you’re free.” Street vendors have also been removed by the city from the area.

Apartment rental startup Zumper states that rent in San Francisco for a one-bedroom apartment is $3,500. High apartment rental rates are largely fueled by high incomes of workers who commute to Silicon Valley jobs.

The San Francisco Moscone Convention Center hosts both the media center for over 5,500 credentialed journalists and the NFL Experience, a temporary theme park operated by the NFL during Super Bowl week.

Economic impact of Super Bowl

The economic impact of the Super Bowl on host areas is in dispute. According to estimates from Victor Matheson at the College of the Holy Cross, the economic impact of Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 was between $30 million and $130 million in Phoenix metro area. That Super Bowl was held in Glendale, Arizona where the New England Patriots beat Seattle Seahawks 28-24. This estimate is much lower than the organizing committee’s figure of $500 million. The committee’s estimate is overstated, says Matheson, by double-counting displaced economic activity by the Super Bowl.

Super Bowls mainly simulate temporary, lower-paying jobs in the hospitality and tourism sector.

Business meeting and convention spaces are in high demand in the Silicon Valley region. The San Jose McEnery Convention Center is busy with events, which boost permanent local economic activity. For instance “search marketing” convention events are held immediately following the Super Bowl. Search marketing is very profitable to Alphabet, the parent company of Google and the world’s largest capitalized company. Alphabet is headquartered in nearby Mountain View. Apple, the second largest company, is centered in close-by Cupertino.

Growth of the NFL

Super Bowl XIX was previously played in the area at Stanford Stadium on January 20, 1985. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-16.

The economic size of both the NFL and Super Bowl has grown 21 percent compounded annually over the 31 intervening years. Stanford Stadium is merely a practice facility for the Broncos while the actual game will be played in Levi’s Stadium, a $1.2 billion facility with 1.85 million square feet, 8,500 club seats, and 165 luxury suites.

Super Bowl 50 is expected to be watched on CBS by more than 114 million viewers, the number who watched last year’s Super Bowl. Ads go for about $5 million for a 30-second spot. Production costs are as high as $30 million per commerical. Wix.com, a website building platform, is using Kung Fu Panda characters in its ad.

The NFL 2015 season revenue is expected to reach $13 billion. Most revenue comes from television rights. Recently CBS and NBC announced sharing the broadcasting rights to Thursday night games for the 2016-17 seasons. According to Richard Sandomir of The New York Times:

CBS and NBC will split 10-game package of Thursday Night Football for about $450M combined — Richard Sandomir (@RichSandomir) February 1, 2016

How much net economic stimulus the game will generate for an already affluent Silicon Valley is up for debate.