BOULDER, Colorado—During the past several weeks, our Sunday Night Football article series has tracked the demand and rate patterns of Sunday Night Football host cities versus Monday Night Football host cities for the past 10 seasons. Results of the analysis appear to indicate that since the 2006 inaugural season, Sunday Night Football host city hotels have experienced a 31% revenue-per-available-room premium over other NFL markets. That is significantly higher than the 18% RevPAR premium Monday Night Football host city hotels experienced during the same five seasons.
That RevPAR premium is likely attributable to a combination of both home team and visiting team fans. While the data points indicating the team affiliation of hotel guests are unavailable, the idea led to the question: What happens to RevPAR premiums if the home team wins or loses?
Focusing first on Sunday Night Football host cities benchmarked against all the NFL markets, the chart below highlights hometown hotels occupancy, rate and RevPAR scenarios if the home team wins or loses:
As the chart above appears to indicate, if the home team wins Sunday night, statistics show a 35% RevPAR premium over all NFL cities, an eight-point boost compared to a loss. That eight-point RevPAR increase is both a function of higher demand, exhibited through a strong 40% occupancy premium, and slightly higher rates.
Turning the focus to Monday Night Football host cities, once again benchmarked against all other NFL markets, the chart below highlights the same hometown hotels occupancy, rate and RevPAR scenarios:
Per the chart above, for Monday night games, consistent with Sunday night games, a home team victory yields a RevPAR boost. For SNF that boost was eight points; for MNF it is a slightly lower, but still notable, six points. The most prominent statistic for Monday Night Football that deviates from the Sunday night stats is under a home-team-loss scenario, occupancy actually appears to grow (32% occupancy premium with a loss versus a 27% occupancy premium with a win). Nevertheless, that heightened occupancy comes at a sizeable, 12% rate discount compared to only a 4% rate discount on Monday nights if the home team wins.
Overall, it appears when the home team wins, local hoteliers also win, especially on Sunday Night. The final chart below delineates the differences between Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football if the home team is victorious:
Continue to follow our Sunday Night Football article series as we next explore which markets get the highest boost from hosting SNF and MNF games and which get the lowest.
