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SPORTS ARTICLES OF THE WEEK ARCHIVE:
 

APRIL 5, 2005
 

These days, it seems like new sports stadiums and arenas are popping up all over.  Whether it’s a new small stadium for a minor league baseball team, or a gigantic 75,000 seat professional football stadium, the facts are clear:  new stadiums cost a ton of money.  The real question in this whole issue is whether sports stadiums and arenas actually benefit or impair a city’s economical structure.  The days of a privately funded stadium are long gone.  In today’s world, it is not uncommon for the city tax payers to end up paying for over half of the stadium construction costs.  Sure, at first glance it might appear great that your team is getting a new arena in your city, but when you analyze it closer, you will realize that it’s not all fine and good, but could cripple a city’s economy for years to come.  In this article, I will look at the pros and the cons of building a new stadium, especially when using the public tax funds, and that affect on the local economy.

You may not realize it, but there are many cons to building a new stadium in a city.  The most obvious example is all the tax money the city’s taxpayers are spending on building these new stadiums.  Below I have listed some examples of recent new stadiums that have been built and their costs:

As you can see, the numbers are startling.  We are seeing up to 75% of a stadium being financed by the public’s tax money, when this money could be going towards the teachers, firefighters, police officers, etc.  I don’t think anyone can make the argument that a sports stadium is more important than all the city employees, and the services they offer.  In many of these cities building new stadiums, issues already exist, such as a deficit in the budget for important programs including education.  In fact, in a recent poll about building a new stadium in New York City, for the New York Jets, over half of New Yorkers said they were OPPOSED to the new stadium.  It may come as a shock, but some people simply do not like sports, and they would rather spend the budget on other things.  This is their decision, and they should be represented by the city.  What ends up happening in a lot of these situations, is that the mayor, or another major politician starts to support the stadium, simply because he would get more publicity with it.  Clearly, there are some major flaws in the whole system, which results in a lot of negative situations as a result of building a new stadium.

            Although all these negatives about building a new city exist, there are a lot of positive conditions that improve as a stadium is built.  To begin with, building a new stadium creates many jobs, both permanent, and part time.  When you really think about it, there are a ton of people involved in just the running of one game.  Between, the food vendors, the announcers, security, ushers, etc, you have a couple hundred employees working every game.  Then even after the game, you still have the ticket vendors, the clean up crew, the vendors of merchandise, waiters in the restaurants, the parking lot attendants, and there are countless other jobs.  Adding up everyone, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were several hundred to a few thousand employees that work every game.  This is a ton of jobs, and opportunities being created, all on a relatively small piece of land.  You also have jobs being created for construction workers while building the stadium.  Additionally, a new city can bring in millions of dollars of new business to a city every year.  With the addition of a stadium, the surrounding restaurants, hotels, and other businesses all benefit.  Take Madison Square Garden for example.  The Garden is surrounded by plenty of sports bars, hotels, and parking garages.  All of these businesses are now thriving, and they owe all their success to The Garden.  Another huge benefit to building a new stadium is the possibility of attracting large events, such as the Super Bowl, to the city.  Many events, including the Super Bowl, Olympics, and even smaller events like concerts, tend to choose host cities that have a newly built stadium.  These events bring in massive amounts of revenue for everyone, including the city.  There is an abundance of positive incidents that occur as a direct result of constructing a new stadium or arena in a city.

            I think when I end up looking at this closely; I can say that stadiums can be either a positive or a negative to a city, depending on how you look at it.  It really all comes down to your personal opinion and current position in life.  Clearly, if you are a teacher or fire fighter, being severely underpaid, then you are probably not going to support a new stadium with the city tax money.  However, if you are a rich businessman, and a sports fan, then you may support the new stadium.  The data of the economic situations after constructing a new stadium varies a lot, and you really can’t pull any conclusive evidence from it.  Some cities prosper from the stadium, and some economies just get worse with the new stadium.  The general trend, and average, is high success and profits for the first few years, but then those earnings die down as the stadium becomes more “ordinary”.  Looking at the long term, stadiums tend to end up with a net loss over the long haul, but this loss is normally not significant.  I guess ultimately it is up to you to decide which position you are on in this issue, but in my opinion, stadiums and arenas are beneficial to the city, and the economy of that city.

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