Crain’s Chicago Business dropped a giant package on publicly funded sports stadium projects this morning, replete with Snow Fall-style animations because that’s what wins awards even if it makes articles largely unreadable, and I only got as far as it asking the question “Is publicly financing stadiums and arenas good for a city?” and then answering itself “It depends” before I wanted to give up and go back to bed. But I feel an obligation to Read This Crap So You Don’t Have To, so let’s do a quick annotated spin throught the highlights, at least:
Teams asking for public funds often argue that building a stadium will lead to greater economic growth for the community, but is that the case? Good data is hard to come by and recent history suggests that sometimes it does spur growth, but other times it does not. Let’s look at two examples.
This is followed by a graphic comparing the Atlanta Braves‘ Truist Park to the Golden State Warriors‘ Chase Center, the latter of which didn’t actually use any public funds. And no information at all is provided for either example on whether it has “spurred growth,” so we’re off to a great start here.
Because stadium-building booms happen about every 25-30 years, it stands to reason that those with terms of more than two decades will still have debt on the books when they start to strategize for the next upgrade.
Uhhh, no, it’s not that stadium-building booms happen about every 25-30 years because of sunspot cycles or something, it’s that team owners typically only sign 30-year leases, so they start strategizing for new or renovated venues once they figure they have leverage to do so. (And quite often well before that.) Not that it really matters whether there’s debt remaining on old buildings when new ones start getting planned, because that’s just bookkeeping, but at least get your facts right.
The overwhelming majority of the 36 stadiums that have been built or had major renovations since 2003 with price tags of more than $575 million (the original budgeted cost of the 2003 Soldier Field renovation) have done so with at least some public funding, based on Crain’s research.
The slideshow of the 36 stadiums shows that the ten listed as “team did not use public funds” include the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons stadiums, which used $350 million and $700 million in public funds respectively, so I have some questions about that Crain’s research (which doesn’t provide its sources).
The structure of stadium deals varies so significantly that experts say it’s impossible to categorically state whether public funding is “good” or “bad.”
Really? You just cited J.C. Bradbury, who is one of several sports economists whose Twitter feeds are just endless streams of saying that evidence is overwhelming that public funding for stadium deals is unrelentingly bad — what “experts” disagree?
[Chicago Alderman Scott] Waguespack believes there are possible deals that could be beneficial for taxpayers, with such infrastructure as train stations, sidewalks and green spaces for public use in The 78, or bridges and sidewalks on the lakefront near the Museum Campus.
Waguespack 1) is not a stadium expert and 2) actually opposes Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s White Sox stadium subsidy plan, citing Field of Schemes’ description of the proposal as “crazytown.”
There’s more, but I just can’t today, sorry — suffice to say you’re not missing much. There are also some accompanying articles that are more worth reading, including an essay by University of Chicago economist Allen Sanderson that resurfaces his quip that “There are only two things you never want to put on valuable property: a cemetery or a football field. Everything else is negotiable,” and a story on fresh poll numbers that show that 72% of Chicagoans want the Bears owners to pay for most or all of any new stadium. There’s still occasional good journalism out there in the world, but friends shouldn’t let friends read those giant stadium think pieces, life is way too short.
Why, oh, why, do elected officials simply not advocate for “train stations, sidewalks and green spaces for public use” IN THE FIRST PLACE? Just build THOSE.
EVERYONE can use those. It’s not an either/or, and you don’t need to allocate hundreds of millions in public funds for a stadium to get train stations, sidewalks and green spaces. JUST BUILD THOSE.
Government has no other purpose than to enhance and protect the lives of its citizens. Things that most of those citizens can use should be prioritized over things that a relative few can, and which enrich people who have already done quite well.
I know, I know, I’ve cracked the code, right? Just frustrating.
I think you may have won this site. G’night everybody, nothing more I can add to that!
The White Sox are (or were… haven’t checked today’s scores…) 27-81.
They need to win out to finish at .500 and are on pace to record a 40 win season (at best… keep in mind what little they have in the way of assets are being sold off in this, another lost season).
Nevermind the public funneling money to this team, the team should be refunding money to the people of Chicago for their pathetic display in recent seasons. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Reinsdorf, it’s that more public money will not improve his team’s performance.
A bit like Sternberg… he celebrates finally getting >$1bn in welfare for billionaires by selling off literally everyone his team has who makes more than the MLB minimum. Just a slightly less inept (and considerably shorter) John Fisher.
The White Sux lost number 15 in a row last night to Kansas City, 8 to 5, and are now 27-82. Only 40 more losses to tie the ’62 Mets.
I see no reason they can’t take the crown from the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics… are they really likely to win more than 8 of their remaining 53 games?
Reinsdorf got lucky on the 90s, a certain number 23 from North Carolina, otherwise his teams have sucked for over 40 years. The Whie Sux have been worthless since disco demolition night 45 years ago. Reinsdorf came up with, along with dollar Bill Wirtz, the brilliant idea of putting his teams on ONTV Sportsvision, chasing away broadcast legend Harry Caray, along with most White Sox fans to the Cubs. Brandon Johnson, Spencer Cox and Erin Mendenhall are competing for the most foolish billion dollar giveaway since Kathy Hochul gave the Bills a billion dollars to build an open air stadium in Buffalo.
A Chicago ballclub that won a World Series before the Cubs ever did is not “worthless” by any means.