Scott Katz, head of Hoboken's events committee, tapped into his experience directing Olympic curling for NBC to come up with the idea of building a curling lane that will stay up through the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The city also is planning to construct a giant cauldron, in Katz's words,Akiem Hicks Jersey, featuring the Roman numerals XLVIII that will have the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. A football-shaped ice rink near the Hudson River also is in consideration.
All the hoopla often obscures the fact that economic impact estimates are inexact and often overly optimistic, many sports economists say. For example, Glendale, Ariz., spent about $2 million more than it reaped in sales taxes when it hosted the 2008 Super Bowl, according to a widely-reported study by the city.