Sports Subsidies And Sports

Jarrett Greene

Skeeter Richardson

Micro Economics

May 12, 2014

Subsidies & Sports

While going to sporting events, have you ever taken the time out to check out the surrounding area? Whether the arena is dilapidated? If the arena is worn down, in what ways besides sports revenue do they build the arena to be up to par. These are all questions that one might say correlate with the topic of Stadium Subsidies. The purpose of this report is to relay what a subsidy is and how sports in America interact with it to make it a big topic. When looking at this topic there are many things we must look at like the impacts that stadium funding has on the immediate public, if it actually benefits the public and the actual good or bad that it does.

Let’s start by understanding what a subsidy is. A subsidy is “ a benefit given by the government to groups or individuals usually in the form of a cash payment or tax reduction. The subsidy is usually given to remove some type of burden and is often considered to be in the interest of the public. Politics play an important part in subsidization.” *

You ask how do subsidies and sports intertwine, well here is your answer. Americans crave sports, so why not shovel out millions and billions of dollars to create a home base for a sports team when you’ll receive that money back essentially in double the amount. “61 percent of Americans identified themselves as sports fans in a Marist poll last November.” These teams have trillions of fans but sports as a whole acts like a monopoly. A monopoly is “a market structure in which one firm makes up the entire market. It is a market structure in which the firms faces no competitive pressure from other firms.”

The leagues whether it be NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB etc....

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...mployed with MSG last year during the Knicks season and once summer came she was unemployed due to renovations of the arena. Although it was a temporarily layoff, essentially working during the season already isn't a real job because out of a eighty-two game season only about fifty percent of the games are actually played at home. Another example would be the fairly new Yankee stadium. The way the new stadium looks is outstanding but what about when the stadium isn't used by baseball. in 2014, there are a total of three events occurring over the summer besides the baseball games. Honestly the amount of money spent to build a stadium right ACROSS THE STREET isn't worth it at all.

In any situation there are pros and cons to a situation. When talking about stadium subsidies there are few on both sides. Below is a chart that states the pros and what exactly occurs.