The Effects of Sports Teams and Stadiums on Cities

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The Effects of Sports Teams and Stadiums on Cities

What if a tax increase came to a city because of a sports team, would it be alright? Of course not, right? Well, consider being told as a tax payer and being told it will help the economy of city to build a stadium. However, a tax increase is never highly looked upon, and large companies sell extraordinary economic growth, and cannot produce the promise.

Area political leaders, local community heads as well as owners of professional sports franchise sometimes claim that a pro sports stadium and teams are vital sources of positive economic growth in urban areas. Even though most of the stadiums and franchises supposedly donate a whole lot of money for providing new jobs, and to also provide the justification for millions of dollars ranging in the hundreds for public subsidies for the building of an assortment of new pro sports teams in the U.S. over the past ten years. Even with the outrage, some numbers crunchers have found no evidence of a positive economic impact of professional sports teams and facilities on urban economies "It's a zero-sum game," Rolnick said. "In fact, it can be a negative-sum game.”

First of all the stadiums and the teams always seem to be a great contender for positive economic development jobs focusing on helping the economic growth of a city. However, this is different from other economic improvement devices like tax credit, sports stadiums, soccer pi...

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...the citizens of the city socially. It will provide a great night life, as well as other entertainment venues that can be brought in for use of the stadium. However to sell a stadium in a city by claiming economic benefits involves many risks, it will most likely not benefit the city and its people to have a sports team in your city.

References

"Stadium numbers don't add up for Fed economist." St. Paul Legal Ledger (April 29, 2004): NA. General OneFile. Gale. Apollo Library. 19 May 2008

"Economic Development. (From the Library)." Government Finance Review 17.6 (Dec 2001): 58(1). General OneFile. Gale. Apollo Library. 19 May 2008 ..

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