Quote:
Originally Posted by KSig RC
These things all have a literal dollar value that can be calculated by economists - it's actually a straight-forward process (and, as an aside, if you can't put a dollar value on it then it doesn't matter as far as the bond issues go).
Even accounting for these extra benefits, publicly-funded stadiums are generally a financial disaster for the city, and essentially account for every citizen paying for an incredibly rich ownership group to get richer.
You might want to check out some of the sports business resources out there - Maury Brown, for instance, does a great job at his site. |
I
absolutely agree on the publicly funded stadium issue. It's kind of a reverse Robin Hood, taking money from the poor for the benefit of the rich.
Both of my brothers-in-law are attorneys (one is the former head of the Ohio Municipal League) who deal heavily in bond(s) and bond issues and my sister-in-law does as well with her Masters in City Administration. My other sister-in-law works for a firm that negotiates stadium naming rights, etc., but I try to ignore that -- she's still OK. Anyway, I'll let them deal with the specific economics.
I'm not talking about bond issues, though. I'm more interested in the way people "feel" about a city and its reputation.
Having grown up in a city (Columbus, Ohio) which, at that time, had no professional teams, but was surrounded by cities of
roughly the same size (Cincinnati and Indianapolis -- and, slightly larger population-wise Cleveland and Pittsburgh), industrial base and demographics which had franchises, the ones with pro athletics were considered "major" cities and ours was really not. (Unless, of course, you want to count Ohio State as a professional football team)
Perhaps that kind of thing can be quantified, but I would be suspect of the conclusions because there are so many hidden variables.
Anyway, had there not been a bombing, Oklahoma City was generally not an area that I thought about (until our son went to Norman for college) except during tornado season. When the NBA moves there, though, I'll hear about it a lot.
It seems to me that if there were not benefits -- hidden or not -- no city would care about having a professional team. The "big time" cities have them. At least that's the way it appears to me -- and I've lived in a bunch of them (Baltimore, Milwaukee, Detroit, New York and Denver). I was living in Baltimore when Robert Irsay sneaked the Colts out of town literally in the middle of the night.
ETA that I've also visited and/or televised games in almost every city with a franchise as well as many with "only" major college teams. There's a different attitude.
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