"One of the standard conditions that the NFL asks of all host communities for Super Bowls is to provide sales tax relief on the sale of tickets to the game and certain associated events as well as parking at those events," said Christopher Santarelli, a spokesman for the state Treasury Department. "New Jersey agreed to provide this tax relief to the NFL."
Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman, said there was nothing new about the request for sales tax relief.
"This has been part of a Super Bowl host committee bid package since the 1990s," he said.
Indeed, the bid specifications for the host committees that had been vying for the 2014 Super Bowl Tampa, Miami and New York/New Jersey made it clear that the NFL would not award the game to any site that did not give the league a pass on sales taxes. According to the bidding requirements, a 127-page document obtained by The Star-Ledger, the NFL spells out the requirement that all revenue on Super Bowl and Super Bowl-related event tickets "be exempt from sales, amusement, or entertainment taxes, and other surcharge obligations."
Other tax breaks
The tickets sold for tonights game carried a face value ranging from $500 all the way up to $2,500 for the club seats, according to a league spokesman. In addition, the NFLs allotment of MetLife Stadiums 218 luxury boxes (the league gets at least half of them, according to the bidding specs) sold for $400,000 each. Game-day parking, which was also exempted from the state sales tax, went for $150.
In addition, the league also required it not be subject to any state, county, city or other local taxes in connection with the game.
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