What do cities and counties get in return for their public investment?
Scholarly econometric studies on the impact of professional sports stadiums are almost unanimous in their conclusion that they do not promote employment or per capita income growth (see here and here).
Despite the outsized role they play in U.S. cultural life and in the media, professional sports teams are small- to modest-sized enterprises.
A typical NFL team might employ 125 to 175 full-time people in its front office and an additional 2,000 game-day employees for 4 hours, 10 days a year.If we consider the total annual revenues generated by a sports team relative to its host city’s GDP, the team contributes between one-third and one-twentieth of one percent to the local area economy.
Moreover, spending on sport games does not imply new net spending within the metropolitan area.
Most residents have a budget. When they spend, say, $200 dollars to take their family to a game, it is $200 that they do not have to spend at a restaurant, a theater, a bowling alley or other entertainment venues.
And, the lion’s share of the income goes to the players, the coaches, the top executives and the team owners who are less likely to spend the bulk of their earnings in the stadium’s metropolitan area.Part of an excellent article, read all of it: Stadiums as Public Investments – EconoFact