Stadium Building Good or Bad?

In my American Sport and the 21^st Century class we talked about the economic impact of sports on the economy. We discussed the impact of building a stadium in a city and the arguments for and against it. In the article, sports economist, Michael Leeds, states that there is no impact on a city’s economy when a stadium is built for a sports franchise. How can this be true? In class we discussed one advantage of building a stadium is the number jobs that become available in the community. Shouldn’t this increase revenue for a city? One problem with this thinking is that the jobs are temporary, offering employment only during the specific sports season. Baseball has 80 home games a year, but what about football? They only have eight scheduled home games a season. How much does this really impact the local economy? As pointed out in class an argument against stadium subsidies was that the athletes and executives were the ones who benefit the most, not the local economy.   Also, Leeds argues that one major reason sports teams don’t add to the local economy is that they don’t generate new spending; people just spend what available entertainment money differently. In class we discussed that stadiums do actually produce a significant amount of money, but how much of that money actually stays in the local economy? Most of the money goes into the owners’ pockets and they don’t usually live in the same city where the stadium for their team is built. Factor in the fact that the money for building a stadium actually comes out of the taxpayers’ pockets and you have to ask yourself if it is actually worth it. Leeds actually points out that the economic impact of a baseball team has about as much impact as a midsize department store. So it seems like a city should reconsider building such a ridiculously priced stadium just to say they have a sports team.  Yet, everyone wants one. Currently, Inglewood’s city council just approved the building the most expensive stadium ever, and Inglewood is one of the poorest areas of Los Angeles. Sports economist, Victor Matheson disagrees with the proposed economic activity from this stadium of more than $800 million dollars a year, feeling it will be much less.  In Missouri, the Governor just offered the Rams $400 million dollars to not move to the new stadium in Inglewood. Where is all this money coming from? Ultimately, you, the taxpayers. Having a sports team makes the fans feel important and feel good, but the fact remains that feeling good does not help the economy.

Article discussed in blog post:
<http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/are-pro-sports-teams-economic-winners-cities>