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April 07, 2004
What Price Baseball?
With the Bertuzzi Affair and the NHL Playoffs dominating things around here for the past few weeks, I've gotten away from some of the other content my readers have come to expect -- that whole "free market sports fan" thing that got me started in the first place. And one of the particular topics I once hit with gusto was the issue of moving the Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C. My position here has always been pretty simple: while I would absolutlely love to see baseball come back to Washington, I don't want to see it happen on the backs of the taxpayers of any local jurisdiction. Which was a sentiment captured perfectly by Brad Humphreys, a economics professor from UMBC, when he testified at a public hearing last Summer about public financing for a Washington, D.C. ballpark: I am not against baseball. I am not opposed to public subsidies for baseball stadiums. I am opposed to public financing for sports facilities on the grounds that they will be engines of economic growth, generating thousands of new jobs and raising the income of taxpayers. The evidence from the academic literature on the economic impact of stadiums overwhelmingly suggests that there will be no net economic benefits from a new stadium. So let this be your guiding question: Is it worth $338 million in tax money spent on a new baseball stadium to incrementally improve the quality of life of the taxpayers, civic pride, and the national image of the District? That's the basic question taxpayers everywhere need to answer when it comes to public financing of any stadium. Thanks to the Sports Economist for the pointer.
Eric
12:59 PM
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