To the tune of at least $4 billion in tax exemptions, America's taxpayers have collectively subsidized the construction of sports venues across the country, for the benefit of sports owners' bottom line. Are we getting our money's worth?
Aaron Kuriloff and Darrell Preston investigate the dozens of wealthy owners whose big-league teams have benefited from millions of dollars in tax-free borrowing that have gone towards the construction of new stadiums. This borrowing occurred despite Congressional efforts in 1986, "to bar cities and
states from building stadiums with tax breaks originally set up to help
local governments cut their borrowing costs for building roads, sewers
and schools."
"During the past decade, studies by Grant Long; Robert Baade of Lake
Forest College near Chicago; Victor Matheson, an economist at College of
the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts; and others have found
that stadiums are poor municipal investments," note Kuriloff and Preston. "Nonetheless, political
leaders are still willing to offer taxpayer-funded aid to team owners --
including muni-bond financing -- to lure or avoid losing a franchise
and the civic pride and event-related jobs that go with it."
FULL STORY: In Stadium Building Spree, U.S. Taxpayers Lose $4 Billion
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research