How much could a limited Husker football season impact Lincoln?

Every game brings in around $5 million in offsite spending.

As everyone waits to find out if Husker football will happen this season, many are preparing for the potential financial loss.

“We estimated, just the fans who attend the game, so not including the tailgaters. The offsite spending is about $5 million a game,” Director, Bureau of Business Research Dr. Eric Thompson said.

With the hundreds of thousands of fans rolling into Lincoln and bringing a massive amount of revenue, the hospitality industry could be hit hard.

Not only if the season doesn’t happen but also if there are limited games or limited attendance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t just stop for hotels or restaurants, it could effect the capitol cities income as well.

“Those hospitality businesses pay a lot of sales tax, lodging pays hotel tax as well and occupancy tax for restaurants. So it matters, it has an effect,” Dr. Thompson said.

With so many already facing the backlash of the pandemic, Dr. Thompson says it won’t be impossible to recover but it’ll be important to be a bit more frugal this year.

“It’ll be a year where the city needs to be very careful about its spending and it’ll impact services I would imagine,” he said.