Proponents of the Super Bowl claim beneficial ‘development’ effects of hosting the game on local businesses. Thus, one might expect to see corresponding adjustments in the local market for debt capital—the predominant source of business creation and reinvestment—around the time of the Super Bowl. Leveraging a panel dataset of 165 local lenders headquartered in 13 Super Bowl host cities between 1971 and 2011, the analysis finds no consistent trends in the volume of debt capital lent or lenders’ external risk exposure. Somewhat consistent trends were documented for lenders’ internal risk...Read more