Hey, Glendale. Remember that Super Bowl you hosted about four months ago? Yeah? Did you enjoy it?

I hope so, because you paid about $3.4 million to host it…and you only made about $1.2 million in tax revenue from it. So that means that you lost about…five, seven, carry the one…hey, can I borrow your abacus?

From Carrie Watters at the ARIZONA REPUBLIC, via THE SPORTS ECONOMIST:

Bottom line: The city spent $2.2 million more than its estimated take in connection with the game.That deficit could be lessened by NFL spending or local visitors’ spending, which were not part of the study by Scottsdale-based Elliott D. Pollack & Company.

While the economic impact of the Super Bowl was measured to be in the $500-million range, the city of Glendale is still holding the bag for that $2 million. How to they plan to recoup that lost Super Bowl money? By hosting another Super Bowl in 2012.

City leaders should find out this month if the Super Bowl will return in another four years as the state competes with Indianapolis and Houston to host the 2012 game.

City Councilman Phil Lieberman, who cast the lone council vote against that bid, is skeptical that a Super Bowl alone would generate business relocation.

Rather than look at long-term benefits, Lieberman said he wants short-term relief in the form of money from the Super Bowl Host Committee or the Cardinals to offset Glendale’s costs. “Or I’ll tell them to go fly a kite, as I did on the 2012 bid,” he said.

Will the city make up that $2 million in the long run? It doesn’t look good. Glendale is one of those newer cities looking to make a name for itself in a sprawled-out region. A lot of that Super Bowl cash left the city limits; the Pollack study shows that the surrounding cities took in over $11 million. It’s arguable that Glendale bit off more than it could chew as Super Bowl host.

[T]he study found that just 5 percent of an estimated 123,500 out-of-town visitors stayed in Glendale and not yet enough retail and entertainment options existed to satisfy demand.

Enjoy those Ramen noodles, Glendale. And go easy with the flavor packets. They’re just loaded with sodium.