Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2000
Publication Title
Journal of Economic Perspectives
Abstract
Since the 1950s, taxpayers have been the primary investors in stadia built for the use of privately-owned professional sports teams. Team owners have argued that sports facilities boost local economic activity; however, economic reasoning and empirical evidence suggest the opposite. Public support for stadia is also driven by demand for community image, and owners of sports teams supply a scarce input into image enhancement--participation in the major league--for which they have been able to extract monopoly rents from dispersed taxpayers. We suggest reforms to dissipate the monopoly sports leagues exercise when negotiating with host communities for their teams.
Keywords
Sports, Gambling, Recreation, Tourism, Public Facility Location Analysis, Public Investment, Capital Stock
Volume
14
Issue
3
First Page
95
Last Page
114
DOI
10.1257/jep.14.3.95
Recommended Citation
Siegfried, John and Zimbalist, Andrew, "The Economics of Sports Facilities and Their Communities" (2000). Economics: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_facpubs/54
Comments
Archived as published.