Ballparks Generate Little Return for Cities

Many economists agree that cities get little return in the way of good jobs and tax dollars when investing public money into building new professional sports stadiums.

1 minute read

March 21, 2006, 10:00 AM PST

By David Gest

"For a decade and a half, the belief that sports teams were economic drivers helped persuade cities and states to shower billions of dollars on major league sports teams, most of it to build state-of-the-art stadiums like the Detroit Tigers' Comerica Park, the Seattle Seahawks' Qwest Field, and perhaps most famously the Baltimore Orioles' Camden Yards-the 1992 ballpark that set the standard not only for how ballparks would look, but how they would be built and paid for. 'Build the Stadium,' went a 1997 slogan for a new San Francisco football stadium, 'Create the Jobs!'"

Yet "Bitter public disputes have broken out in a few other sports cities over whether to give public funds to the local team. The most recent ballpark to be built, St. Louis's new Busch Stadium, was paid for almost entirely by the Cardinals after city and state officials refused to commit public funds."

Thanks to Jeffrey Muckensturm

FULL STORY: Ballpark figures

Sunday, March 19, 2006 in The Boston Globe

Community / Economic Development United States

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