We all know that San Francisco city officials massively fumbled negotiations with the NFL and the Super Bowl Host Committee, leaving San Francisco taxpayers with an estimated bill of $4,881,625 for the upcoming Super Bowl 50 celebrations. But it may be those unfortunate enough to have businesses located in or around the soon-to-be built Super Bowl City that are really going to take a hit.
Super Bowl City will shut down a section of downtown San Francisco for three weeks starting January 23rd, and business owners and vendors are bracing for the impact.
The worst hit will likely be the artist vendors who operate out of Justin Herman Plaza — the city has booted them out of the plaza for the entire three weeks.
"The NFL could've partnered with us and we could've created unique and collectible products, art items," vendor Michael X. Trachiotis told ABC 7. But that didn't happen, and instead Trachiotis is worried that he may not even be able to return once Super Bowl 50 has come and gone. "I might lose my business, frankly," he explained.
And for those with offices in the area, don't expect deliveries to get through in any timely manner.
"It's going to be real crazy," FedEx driver Willie Woodson told the channel. "It's going to be real hard for us to get around and deliver packages to people who want their packages delivered to them."
Gus Ruiz, a spokesperson for USPS, echoed Woodson's concerns.
"We're trying to get access so we become part of [that] because there's a lot of deliveries that we will not be able to make otherwise," she said of USPS's efforts to get permission to have its delivery trucks enter the Super Bowl City area. If they can't get permission, "individual[s] that normally would get their mail would have to come to a post office and pick it up."
While the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee continues to argue that any Super Bowl-related costs experienced by San Francisco will be more than offset by increased tax revenues from out-of-town visitors, that is of little consolidation to those whose work will be directly impacted by the celebrations — especially artists like Trachiotis.
In related news, hotel rooms all over town are going for three times what they would normally, with Hyatt Regency rooms next to Super Bowl City now at $879 a night, as CBS 5 reports.
But hey, the celebrations will include an Alicia Keys concert, so it's all good, right?
Related: Day Around The Bay: Official Super Bowl 50 Poster 'Raptures' San Mateo County