Stadium: A Public Cost for Private Gain
A big reason for the current fire sale of talent in the Florida Marlins is due to their demand for a new stadium.
http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/miabpk.htm
This link shows the proposed plans for a new stadium in Miami and of course the owner of the Marlins wants the city of Miami to pay for $198 million dollars, provided by the tax payers of the city. Now it is believed by some that having a sports team provides no new economic growth and that there is a fixed amount of money in an economy and people will spend it at other places within the city if the sports teams leave. Well then why can the owners expect the city to pay for such a large part of it when there is no significant economic boom after? I’m sure there are better things that the almost 200 million dollars could go to in the city of Miami. Also, new stadium or not Miami isn’t that great of a sports town. Attendance at a game this past season was under 1,000 people, more people came to Schaly Stadium for community day. Although the stadium would be nice to have is it really needed, or wanted?
2 comments:
Its hard to convince an entire city that the economic revenue brought in by a new sports team is worth the increase in taxes they will have to pay. Most people might not even care about sports so why should they have to pay for it. Its true, Miami has a lot more going on which is why it might struggle to be a bigger market for sports. This could prove difficult in their quest for a new stadium.
By now, we certainly know that having a stadium in a city doesn't exactly increase economic activity, or increase the number of jobs within a city. However, Miami will probably end up putting up the money for the new stadium, if for no other reason, simply because they want to continue to be an MLB city. Some people still believe that having this stadium in the city will increase economic growth, when these are the same people that live in the city and should see first-hand what a stadium does for the city--not much.
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