Super Bowl XLII: Giant revenue machine for Ariz.

Visitors who came to Arizona to see Super Bowl XLII, to help stage the gridiron match and its many sideshows, or just to bask in the super-sized spotlight, left the state's businesses and tax coffers more than $500 million richer.

That's 25 percent more than originally estimated and an extra incentive for the Super Bowl Host Committee to ramp up efforts to land the big game again in 2012. Their bid is in. The committee still has to figure out how to pay for it if the Valley gets a thumbs up. Super Bowl XLII cost an estimated $17 million, about two-thirds paid by businesses and one-third from public sources. A future version should cost something more than that.

"The study confirms that Super Bowl XLII represents an incredibly wise investment by the State of Arizona," Host Committee Chairman Mike Kennedy said in a statement announcing results of the economic impact analysis of the Feb. 3 football-focused extravaganza. "With over $500 million generated in Arizona during Super Bowl week, Super Bowl XLII was not just a world-class football game, but an incredibly beneficial event for the residents of Arizona."

The study, conducted by Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business, was released Wednesday.

Researchers found that 91,200 out-of-towners showed up, spending an average 3.9 nights in the state and an average $617 per day on food, lodging and fun.

Only 62,500 of them had tickets to the main event. The rest came to organize the NFL showdown at University of Phoenix Stadium and the plethora of parties and other special events surrounding it, or to report on all the doings Valleywide. Or to just hang out with the rich and famous who played and stayed mostly in Scottsdale.

Scottsdale's bed tax collections were 20 percent higher in February than in February 2007, said Brent DeRaad, executive vice president of the Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. And the city's restaurant sales were up 4 percent in February, reversing a four-consecutive-month downward trend in restaurant revenue, DeRaad said.

"Super Bowl activity played a big part in that," he said.

The financial impact was big, DeRaad said, but even more important to Scottsdale tourism leaders was the opportunity to show off the city's attributes to the world's corporate executives and VIPs who wouldn't be in the Valley except for Super Bowl.

Those high-end travelers fit the city's top tourism demographics, he said, and if they enjoyed their Super Bowl experience, they'll likely come back to spend vacations at local resorts and maybe even stage future business meetings in Scottsdale.

Several corporate groups also stayed at The Buttes Marriott Resort in Tempe, and they spent freely in restaurants, shops and bars, said Steve Eberhart, general manager.

Because the visitors were in the Valley for fun, not business, The Buttes, like other Valley resort properties, didn't get the banquet and meetings revenue typical for that time of year, but Eberhart said it was all worth it.