The Economic Impact of Professional Sport Arenas The construction of sport stadiums in the United States has received considerable amounts of scrutiny and praise: considering the argument between positive or negative economic impact on communities brought on by professional sports teams and their playing facilities. With the cost of stadiums reaching the billions, the underlying issue of utilizing taxpayer dollars and public funds to facilitate glamorous arenas is in the limelight. 21st century stadiums are built to: replace outdated ones, meet standards in hopes of joining a national league, and in most cases generate economic activity in the home city. The key reasons of building publicly financed stadiums can vary, although the matter if …show more content…
The first impact that is noticeable is the amount of jobs created through construction and maintenance after the stadium is built followed by consumer spending. When attending sport functions, consumers tend to carry out activities such as eat in restaurants, buy concessions, and pay for parking. These types of activities generate more revenue and economic activity for the local community. Similarly, stadiums have the potential to introduce new development into the area as a result of renewed interest. With inflated economic activity the value of existing property improves in addition to creating sufficient revenue to offset the cost of the subsidy (Woalla). An example of continuous positive economic impact would be that of Indianapolis: consisted of a large sports economy which includes the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Colts and Indiana Pacers. According to a 2014 study conducted by the Indiana University Public Policy Institute, Central Indiana appraised an annual economic impact of $3.4 billion (Indiana University). Statistics such as this don’t hold true for all or most sport communities which is why economists deem publically financed sports arenas as an ineffective method of generating significant economic growth (Kavoori). Using for others and …show more content…
The plan for Paul Brown Stadium was enacted in 1996; it was to pay for both the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals stadiums. With the threat of the Bengals leaving town, voters in Hamilton County approved an increase in the sales tax that would help construct the stadiums (Belson). In total the cost of the stadium amounted to $330 million, $50 million paid by the Bengals and $40 million by the state of Ohio, that left approximately $250 million to be covered by local taxpayers (Brennan). The county estimated the total cost was actually $454 million (McWhirter and Albergotti).Promises made to entice voters to pay for stadiums have the possibility of being reverted thus causing unforeseen consequences. The voters of Hamilton County were promised a property-tax rollback and more funding for Cincinnati public schools (McWhirter and Albergotti). The sales tax increase created a new tax revenue that was presumed would increase each coming year to be able to cover the debt the county would incur after financing the two stadiums (Ross). the results created: immense debt, cuts on other programs and increased property taxes due to the rollback and all this caused by a stadium whose team has had just two winning seasons. This clearly indicates that new stadiums aren’t an instant revitalizing project that can boost the
The creation of the Oklahoma City Thunder has had huge economic effects on the local and state economies. According to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, each thunder home game puts $1.3 million dollars into the local economy, every season there are 41 home games, which equals around $53.3 million dollars per season. Jordan Wiley, general manager of Leon’s on Brookside, says “Thunder games have created a generous boost in sales…Thunder games held on weekends can double sales. A Thunder game held during the week can triple sales. (...
Some of the most prolific franchises in sports, like the Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Colts of the National Football League, have moved to other cities breaking off their loyalty to the hometown fans. More important than the actual moves are the more frequent threatened moves. When teams “play the field” and explore the option of playing in other cities they are able to lure interested cities into giving them just about any royalty they want. New stadiums are only the beginning. The willingness to threaten departure has secured for teams a variety of land deals, lower taxes, more revenues from parking and concessions, control of stadium operations, guaranteed ticket sales, renovation of stadiums with luxury seating, control over neighborhoods and transportation systems, and that’s only the beginning of the list.
When a new Minor League Stadium is under construction you can have a large impact of up to $5,812,756 in regional sales (Colcough, Daellenbach, and Sherony, 1994). Construction brings the opportunity for a boom in the job market. Once construction is done, it can leave some unemployment for those who were once employed to construct the stadium.
In the heart of downtown Los Angeles nestled within the valley of Chavez Ravine lies Dodger Stadium. Overlooking green valleys and rolling hills with the skyscrapers of the city behind it, Dodger Stadium appears as the epitome of peace in bustling Los Angeles. Few would fathom that beneath this sanctum of the Los Angeles Dodgers resides a village of Mexican Americans. Critics ranging from muralist Judy Baca, to academic writers Tara Yosso and David García, to the people displaced themselves argue that the creation of Dodger Stadium can never be justified because it destroyed a village. The construction of Dodger Stadium served the common good according to the definition given in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. The demolition of Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop was the fault of the City Housing Authority (CHA), not owner Walter O’Malley who capitalized on Chavez Ravine at the right moment. O’Malley was primarily a businessman who was in charge of the team to make money in order to satisfy thousands of customers while supporting the club’s workers. Finally, the majority of people living in Los Angeles supported the addition of a baseball team which would in turn benefit the city itself.
...h the money raised for the games(Thunder Economic Impact). The Thunder may bring in a high amount of money but the total cost it is to host the game is not always calculated when finding the income. The benefits of having a major sports franchise may be exaggerated but it is obvious on how big the Thunder impacts Oklahoma.
There seems to be a domino effect through out the U.S., new stadiums are being built, teams are demanding that their city build them a new stadium to play in but it is not necessary to build these stadiums. The most obvious change in new stadiums is coming from baseball. In the last 10-15 years many new baseball stadiums have been built, but who is paying for these stadiums? The teams and the owners that are demanding the stadiums, or the taxpayers? The answer is that taxpayers are picking up a huge amount of the cost to build a new stadium.
Financial aspects and profitability of college athletic programs is one of the most important arguments involved in this controversy. A group of people expresses that college athletic programs are over emphasized. The point they show on the first hand, is that athletic programs are too expensive for community colleges and small universities. Besides, statistics prove that financial aspects of college athletic programs are extremely questionable. It is true that maintenance, and facility costs for athletic programs are significantly high in comparison to academic programs. Therefore, Denhart, Villwock, and Vedder argue that athletic programs drag money away from important academics programs and degrade their quality. According to them, median expenditures per athlete in Football Bowl Subdivision were $65,800 in 2006. And it has shown a 15.6 percent median expenditure increase fro...
Adams, David. “Baseball Fans Strike Out As Stadiums Widen Net For Ads”, The Times (UK). May 7, 2004.
Abstract: The Stadium construction boom continues, and taxpayers are being forced to pay for new high tech stadiums they don’t want. These new stadiums create only part-time jobs. Stadiums bring money in exclusively for professional leagues and not the communities. The teams are turning public money into private profit. Professional leagues are becoming extremely wealthy at the taxpayers expense. The publicly-funded stadium obsession must be put to a stop before athletes and coaches become even greedier. New stadiums being built hurt public schools, and send a message to children that leisure activities are more important than basic education. Public money needs to be used to for more important services that would benefit the local economy. Stadiums do not help the economy or save struggling towns. There are no net benefits from single purpose stadiums, and therefore the stadium obsessions must be put to a stop.
Over the past twenty years, many things have changed and evolved to impact our economy. From cell phones to music to media, we are all constantly affected. The most influential aspect though, in my opinion, has been America’s biggest game, the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl by all means effects our economies in every way, shape, and form. The sport is one of the most complex social institutions in American Society. Sports effect major institutions of society, including: the mass media, politics, religion, education, and family. The Super Bowl gathers thousands of viewer’s attentions including those who do not usually watch the regular season games.
The sports industry is a very big business that contributes great amounts to the economy in terms of turnover, taxes and jobs. The sports industry has an economic cycle. So it depends on different parts of the year to hold big events. The benefits to be gained are that local communities as suppliers of services and goods obtain increased business.
Sports are one of the most profitable industries in the world. Everyone wants to get their hands on a piece of the action. Those individuals and industries that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these sports teams are hoping to make a profit, but it may be an indirect profit. It could be a profit for the sports club, or it could be a promotion for another organization (i.e. Rupert Murdoch, FOX). The economics involved with sports have drastically changed over the last ten years.
As entertainers, athletes are paid for fan satisfaction. The more fans that want to see an athlete perform, the more the athlete is paid. In fact, most athletes, even those who make millions of dollars for each flubbed fly ball, dropped pass, and missed free throw, feel they probably deserve even higher salaries; the reason being that they’re still in demand. While certain athletes may never bring a championship ring to their team, or even bring home a winning season, those athletes will always pack the stands. Fans in the stands translate into ticket sales. Ticket sales can potentially lead to national television broadcasts. Inevitably, the formula of ticket sales plus national television broadcasts leads to massive revenue, and this is how owners and organizations can afford to pay players like Michael Jordan $25 Million for his retiring season alone. However, how does society (as a whole) benefit from these over-inflated salaries? In short, it doesn’t.
Bissinger states in his essay that local high schools these days are spending millions of dollars on things such as elaborate stadiums, gymnasiums and even chartered planes to transport their team to big play-off championship games. In the past, schools would sponsor fundraisers to RAISE the money for these t...
While sports for the spectators are merely entertainment, the economics of the industry are what drives businesses to become involved. Sports have become more of a business entity rather than an entertainment industry due to the strong economic perception of the over all industry. There are several instances in which economics may contribute to the effect on the sports industry, such as: the success of a team, the price of a ticket, the amount of money an athlete will make, and the amount of profit a team will make. The success of an...