Analysis Of Chapter 39: If We Build It, Will They Come?

The rise in popularity of professional sports over the last century has brought financial gain and stability to many facets of the economy. Whether it is a new franchise, stadium, or the signing of a big-name player, these activities bring attention to a region or group and influence often comes as a result of that attention. Money brought into an area from ticket revenue, hotel bookings, merchandise sales, and other businesses are impacted financially when a stadium is built. The economic influence a stadium brings to a local economy is a positive one. Many factors come into play when anticipating the construction of a new stadium.

sport as a result invest must more interest into it. The NFL is able to leverage the fact that

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States and to most; it is considered the top professional football league in the world. In order to become a monopoly, you have to take control of the market you’re in. The NFL was created in the early 1900’s. In 1920 the APFL was created when representatives from many leagues and teams came together. The APFA originally had 11 teams when they merged with NFL they currently have 32 teams (Tuchner, 2012). The National Football League is now the most attended domestic sports league in the world. Since completion to the NFL is at a minimum some substitutes are two similar monopolies, the NBA and MLB. But the NFL still is the most powerful out of all of them. (The NFL, 2013)

The past 20 years have witnessed a massive transformation of professional sports stadiums in North America and the rest of the world. In the United States and Canada alone, by 2012, 125 of the 140 teams in the five largest professional sports leagues, the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Soccer (MLS), and National Hockey League (NHL), will play in stadiums constructed or significantly renovated since 1990. This new construction has come at a significant cost, the majority of which has been covered by taxpayers. Construction costs alone for major league professional sports facilities have totaled in excess of $30 billion over the past two

Money is invested into these governing bodies of sport that will make new openings for more people to play local sports.

     Possibly those who are most effected by the sport’s industry’s willingness to abandon a community are the dedicated fans. When Al Davis moved the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles, he pulled away from some of sport’s most loyal fans and also hurt his football team. The NFL’s Colts and Cardinals have also had failures on the field since their moves. These three teams are proof that all the greed that was put into the moving of their franchises hasn’t brought them more success or in some cases less success.

They could not afford to outbid other teams for established players. Under the farm system, the Cardinals bought minor-league franchises and hired young players. The farm clubs provided the players with experience. The best players then moved up to play with the Cardinals” (Sports Champions, 1). This quote shows how teams with less money can get good baseball players without having

The next year the other teams started paying so they could also recruit the best

The issue at hand, however, is that power has shifted from the cities to the teams themselves. Professional athletic organizations have started taking advantage of cities by threatening to relocate unless they get public subsidies for expensive stadium renovations and construction. With this in mind it is imperative to ask today’s question: Do public subsidies for professional athletic organizations benefit their local community?

"The biggest problem is the owners that are willing to pay these astronomical salaries. Until the owners all get together and agree something will never happen." (Zook) There are wealthy owners that can just go out and buy a winning team. The Yankees will always be in contention year after year as long as George Steinbrenner is the owner. He has the money to have a yearly team payroll of around $115 million. So being a rich owner in theory gives your team a better chance on winning in the Major Leagues.

Sports teams are a symbol of a cities pride. Take for example the Chicago Cubs. They create a sense of loyalty toward that city. However, none of that would happen without a stadium. Stadiums and teams can play a very important role in a cities economy, or they could also be irrelevant. To decide whether or not they are useful or not you must first understand each side of the argument. So first, let’s examine the pros of having a stadium within your city. Then, we will discuss the harms of having one. And finally, decide which side is more beneficial for the economy.

     The second factor was the development of competing leagues. “Competing leagues such as the American Football League, the American Baseball Association, the World Hockey Association, and the United States Football League offered an alternative to athletes (Masteralexis, 246).” These leagues offered higher salaries to induce players to move from their original teams. When players left a team to for more money, it also increased the salaries of players who stayed on the team. Agents played a crucial role in determining what was best for athletes, and which league they should choose.

In the United States, new sports stadiums are commonly seen as a vital part of the redevelopment of a city having a great economic growth with the production of jobs and a positive income builder. After this, the owners of the pro sports teams with millions and millions of dollars of subsidies for the construction of new stadiums and arenas and expect these facilities to generate economic benefits exceeding these subsidies by large margins. However, a growing body of fact indicates that professional sports facilities, and the franchises they are home to, may not be engines of economic benefit anywhere claims Sachse, “. In reality, sports franchises typically account for a very small proportion of the total economic output of the cities in which they reside.” Some economical studies on the amount of income and employment in US cities find no evidence of positive economic benefits associated with past sports facility construction and some studies find that professional sports facilities and teams have a net negative economic impact on income and employment. It just shows that these results suggest that at best, professional sports teams and facilities provide non-pecuniary benefits like civic pride, and a greater sense of community, along with consumption benefits to those attending games and following the local team in the media; at worst, residents

The city of Springfield, Massachusetts were blessed with the basing of a baseball minor league franchise in their city. But the class A team is faced with great revenue generation challenges that will make or mar the organization. The new team might likely take advantage of the fact that closest sports franchised teams are all located 90 miles away from Springfield. This might create a ticket and concession boom for the team and other benefits like employment and taxes for the city. The city has a considerable moderate family income and a recent growth index in the healthcare, financial, and other small and medium enterprise sectors is an advantage

   Abstract:  The Stadium  construction boom continues, and taxpayers are being forced to pay for new high tech stadiums they don’t want.  These new stadiums create only part-time jobs.  Stadiums bring money in exclusively for professional leagues and not the communities.  The teams are turning public money into private profit.  Professional leagues are becoming extremely wealthy at the taxpayers expense.  The publicly-funded stadium obsession must be put to a stop before athletes and coaches become even greedier.  New stadiums being built hurt public schools, and send a message to children that leisure activities are more important than basic education.  Public money