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June 25, 2008
common sense might prevail
It looks like I'm not the only one skeptical about the prospect of the Red Sox making Sarasota their Sprint Training home. There seemed to be a lot of interest at first for bringing the team to city, but it looks like reality is setting in for new stadium supporters. Part of it is that fact the city is broke. City commissioners are a little weary of devoting resources to a baseball facility when they've been complaining about tough economic times. Waldo Proffitt the former editor for the Sarasata Herald-Tribune is spot on about the prospect of bringing the Red Sox to Sarasota.
There is no doubt that a study paid for by the city, county or organized supporters of the plan would show a new stadium to be financially feasible. I have over the past few decades read dozens of feasibility studies done by the most reputable companies in the business and I have never seen one which said the project proposed would not be a financial success -- driven usually by that wonderful economic discovery called "the multiplier effect."The economic argument is probably the loudest coming from "citizens for sox" supporters and it's the weakest. Not only for the reasons listed in Proffitt's editorial (Tom Harkin), but for the many reasons made by Club Soda in his brilliant post "one of the worst ideas ever: free stadiums for rich guys." If the country really feels like it's facing tough times, building extravagant stadiums for rich people doesn't make much sense. I suspect that common sense will prevail on this issued and the stadium will only be built if private funds are found. In other words, it isn't happening.
But, I have gone to Google and in the search box typed "sports stadiums public financing" and received 1,860,000 citations. This topic has been well studied by economists and sociologists. The loud and clear message of this research exercise is that only the team owners and a small number of local businesses get any financial benefits from the stadiums.
Posted by nemov at June 25, 2008 7:31 AM
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