WHO SAID IT: Martha McSally.

TITLE: U.S. representative, 2nd Congressional District.

PARTY: Republican.

THE COMMENT: "Widely attended events like the Super Bowl coming up in Glendale, Arizona, or the annual gem show in Tucson act like a magnet for traffickers, and unfortunately, their victims."

THE FORUM: Speech on the House floor on Jan. 27.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT: Whether the Super Bowl and Tucson's annual gem show resulted in a significant increase in sex trafficking.

ANALYSIS: Anti-sex-trafficking advocates have long claimed high-profile sporting events draw thousands of trafficked sex workers, brought from other states or countries to profit from large crowds. However, little evidence exists to support these claims, and a coalition of non-government organizations debunked many of them in 2011.

Predictions of how many sex workers travel to the Super Bowl each year range from 10,000 to 100,000. But host cities make about the same number of prostitution arrests during Super Bowl week as they do other weeks.

A study by Arizona State University's Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research on the 2014 Super Bowl hosted in New Jersey found hundreds of ads in the New York metro area that could have been related to trafficking, but it noted that they weren't significantly different than ads found during any other week.

The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women offers four reasons why sex trafficking is unlikely to increase dramatically at sporting events.

Predicted numbers are inflated. The Super Bowl typically draws fewer than 200,000 visitors to a host city, and 100,000 out-of-area sex workers would make up half of all visitors.

Short-term events aren't profitable. Local sex workers report losing business during large sporting events.

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Presumptions about sporting events rely on the stereotype that they draw primarily male fans, while in fact women and families make up much of the audience.

Attendees who've shelled out hundreds or thousands of dollars on tickets, airfare and lodging don't typically have extra money to spend on prostitutes.

Nevertheless, anti-trafficking advocates like Cindy McCain, who helped organize a billboard campaign highlighting sex trafficking during the weeks leading up to this year's Super Bowl in Glendale, continue to cite a connection between the Super Bowl and sex trafficking.

In an e-mail, McSally spokesman Patrick Ptak cited an article about a sex-trafficking sting across 17 states that resulted in nearly 600 arrests. A handful of these took place in Phoenix. He also cited a Yahoo news article that said the FBI retrieved 18 of the 27 minors it rescued in the past year during the three weeks immediately leading up to the Super Bowl.

McSally also cites the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, which draws roughly 50,000 visitors each January and February. The 2015 show began Jan. 30 and ran through Feb. 15.

Tucson Police say they haven't closely watched sex trafficking and related crimes during previous gem shows and can't definitively say whether such crimes increase during those weeks. The department paid a little more attention this year, said Sgt. Jerry Skeenes of the department's special investigations division.

Skeenes said that he and fellow officers noticed more sex workers and ads during the last week of January and first week of February, but some of the sex workers may have come from Phoenix to avoid the large numbers of law enforcement in the Valley leading up to the Super Bowl.

A statement by Tucson Police Capt. David Azuelo, which Ptak shared with AZ Fact Check, says the department noticed many Phoenix-area phone numbers on ads for sex workers around this year's gem show.

BOTTOM LINE: Evidence of sex trafficking at the Super Bowl or Tucson Gem and Mineral Show is largely anecdotal. There's no empirical evidence that either event is a "magnet" for traffickers and, in fact, most evidence disproves theories that the Super Bowl draws large numbers of traffickers. Tucson Police noticed increases in sex workers and sex ads during the last week of January and first week of February, but they don't know whether they're related to the gem show.

THE FINDING: One star: Mostly false.

SOURCES: Martha McSally's speech; "What's the cost of a rumour? A guide to sorting out the myths and the facts about sporting events and trafficking," The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, 2011; ASU researchers: Super Bowl not cause of sex trafficking, The Arizona Republic, March 7, 2014; Billboards aim to stop human trafficking, The Arizona Republic, Jan. 7, 2015; National sex trafficking sting nets nearly 600 arrests before Super Bowl, The Los Angeles Times, Feb. 2, 2015; To prevent sex trafficking from becoming Super Bowl scourge, FBI intensifies law enforcement efforts, Yahoo News, Jan. 31, 2015; The Insider's Guide to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Shows; phone interview with Tucson Police Sgt. Jerry Skeenes; e-mailed statement from Martha McSally spokesman Patrick Ptak.

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