American and UN Flags flying on UN Way near the Chrysler building in New York City. Image shot 03/2008. Exact date unknown.

This weekend, Santa Clara, California will have the honor of hosting Super Bowl 50. In its bid to host the big game, Santa Clara beat out four other cities, each vying for the approximately $500 million the NFL championship pumps into the host city’s economy.

While hosting the Super Bowl is a big deal, hosting the United Nations is an even bigger deal. That’s according to a recent op-ed by New York City’s Office for International Affairs, which found that the annual economic output generated by UN-related workers is more than $2.3 billion!

In other words, hosting the UN is like hosting almost five Super Bowls – every single year. Twitter_logo_blue

Outside of New York, research conducted by the Better World Campaign late last year found that UN contracts with U.S. businesses totaled $555 million in 2014, spanning 30 states and more than 100 cities and communities – which is itself another Super Bowl-sized total.

There will be more details to come when New York City’s full economic impact report is released but from these initial findings, it’s clear that the UN is not only a critical foreign policy tool, it’s good for the U.S. economy too.

TAKE ACTION: To learn more about the UN’s value to the U.S., sign up for updates from the Better World Campaign.