Cuomo Full Of Crap Over Super Bowl Jobs

Dan Goldberg at Capital NY:

The day before the Super Bowl, Governor Andrew Cuomo sent out a press release touting the economic impacts of the big game.

It said that an estimated 1.5 million people visited Super Bowl Boulevard during four days and that spending by visitors will generate an estimated $280-300 million in economic activity in New York State. Those numbers came from Empire State Development.

The very last sentence of the press release reads: “Additionally, Super Bowl XLVIII is estimated to generate more than 2,400 full- time equivalent jobs, which will generate millions of dollars in tax revenue for New York State.”

There is no attribution for this number and repeated requests to the governor's press office asking for an explanation went unanswered.

Adding 2,400 full-time equivalent jobs would be quite a feat. Which is to say it's probably wrong. 

“That's a pretty crazy number,” said Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross. “That's almost certainly wrong.”

Matheson studied the job impact on Super Bowl host city's between 1969 and 1997 and found that, on average, the host gained 537 full-time equivalent jobs. And it's important to remember, Matheson said, studies like his looked at the “metro area” which would include New Jersey so some of those 537 jobs are outside of New York.

“2,400 is what economists would believe sports boosters would overestimate,” Matheson said.

So where did Cuomo's number come from?

Hard to know for sure, but there is a study from Conventions Sports & Leisure International, which offers consulting services to the convention, sport, entertainment and visitor industries, that said the Orange Bowl Festival would create 2,400 full-time equivalent jobs.

A full-time equivalent job is usually defined as 40 hours over a five-day work week, so two 20-hour jobs can count as one full-time job.

Where did that 2,400 number Cuomo hawked come from?

Why, out of his ass, of course.

He made it up.

Just the way he makes a lot of things up.

Cuomo inhabits his own reality, where numbers do things only he can see.

He does the same with his education stats.