Sports Welfare: Your Tax Dollars At Play
Geesh, how dumb do our elected officials think voters are?
REALLY DUMB. If you want to know the truth, in Miami, of this statement: just ask the folks living around the Miami Marlins stadium in Little Havana, how much they have benefited from the new stadium. It's a joke, to an exponential power.
BL: The argument in favor of public financing for ballparks and arenas is that the new venues create jobs. But you’ve presented the argument that having a stadium or a team in a particular area might actually reduce average incomes. How so?
PH: There’s a professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Dennis Coates, who has looked at that question. He’s just an economist looking at the figures, he found that what he calls the "sports environment," which is basically having teams and arenas in a certain area, it actually correlates with reduced incomes of about $40 per family. Study after study has been done that shows that the overall economic impact of building stadiums is almost always negligible. Every dollar that’s spent in an area, going to a game, or going to a restaurant in the area, it would have been spent somewhere else in the community. So, you’re just sort of shuffling money around, you’re not actually accumulating new wealth.
From Let's Eliminate Sports Welfare:
"In Miami, a local politician who supported public financing for the Marlins’ new stadium says that taxpayers fronting an estimated $220 million for renovations to Sun Life Stadium is not a matter of “if,” but rather “when” and “how” -- never mind that Miami-Dade County residents will be paying off Marlins Park until 2049. The reason? The NFL insists that a stadium that already underwent $300 million in sprucing up over the last decade needs additional work in order to host future Super Bowls, and since the Miami Dolphins remain $230 million in debt from previous fix-ups, well, hey, someone has to pick up the tab."
Geesh, how dumb do our elected officials think voters are?
REALLY DUMB. If you want to know the truth, in Miami, of this statement: just ask the folks living around the Miami Marlins stadium in Little Havana, how much they have benefited from the new stadium. It's a joke, to an exponential power.
BL: The argument in favor of public financing for ballparks and arenas is that the new venues create jobs. But you’ve presented the argument that having a stadium or a team in a particular area might actually reduce average incomes. How so?
PH: There’s a professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Dennis Coates, who has looked at that question. He’s just an economist looking at the figures, he found that what he calls the "sports environment," which is basically having teams and arenas in a certain area, it actually correlates with reduced incomes of about $40 per family. Study after study has been done that shows that the overall economic impact of building stadiums is almost always negligible. Every dollar that’s spent in an area, going to a game, or going to a restaurant in the area, it would have been spent somewhere else in the community. So, you’re just sort of shuffling money around, you’re not actually accumulating new wealth.
From Let's Eliminate Sports Welfare:
"In Miami, a local politician who supported public financing for the Marlins’ new stadium says that taxpayers fronting an estimated $220 million for renovations to Sun Life Stadium is not a matter of “if,” but rather “when” and “how” -- never mind that Miami-Dade County residents will be paying off Marlins Park until 2049. The reason? The NFL insists that a stadium that already underwent $300 million in sprucing up over the last decade needs additional work in order to host future Super Bowls, and since the Miami Dolphins remain $230 million in debt from previous fix-ups, well, hey, someone has to pick up the tab."
9 comments:
I got polled on this question last week. It took nearly fifteen minutes, but I wanted them to know that I didn't give a flying rat's ass what it would do for future prospects for bringing Super Bowls and other events here if there was even the slightest hint that the public would be on the hook for one cent of the renovation either in tax cuts or outright contributions from the county.
I also told them that unless they changed the name back to Joe Robbie Stadium, I wasn't interested in it at all.
I read the Herald this morning about this train wreck. Anytime I see the name "Barreto" affiliated with anything, it's a bad deal for the taxpayers.
I also don't understand what the actual net benefit is to the community in dollars the super bowl brings. This is straddled in between two counties and it's questionable where all the supposed revenue is going. Miami Dade county cannot afford to loose proven revenue from the boat show for a questionable return on another event which no one can actually provide good figures for (kind of like the Marlins).
I'm glad they have three new public faces on the Super Bowl bid, but if you think for one second the voters in the County will allow any taxpayer funds to be used for this, they're wrong. Even though no one is talking about it publicly, there's not a bone in my body that doesn't believe there's plenty of talk going on about it behind the scenes.
Let's put together a wish list of alternate projects the tourist tax funds could pay for that don't include sports stadiums, that the public and local economy genuinely would enjoy and benefit from: public parks for one- both grand and mini. That way we wouldn't have to continuously give up our public parklands to developers in swaps, private-public deals, etc... (tennis stadium giveaway of Crandon Park, Miami Marine Stadium "park," assorted Brickell parklands.) And we could reclaim spaces like the Grand Central Park (former Miami Arena land), Watson Island, Jungle Island. What other projects?
I seriously do not understand how it is even possible that one cent of tax dollars goes to anything other than schools or other public works like parks, libraries, roads, police, fire fighters, etc etc.
Professional sports are private for-profit businesses. It is absurd and regrettable that this ever happens.
Yes, let's put all that money in to public parks, so we can have vast open green spaces with vistas of the water. Like Bicentennial Park, oh wait, that's right, it was an open park. Full of heroine users, face eaters, hookers, etc.... How about Bayfront Park? The only use that ever gets is from Ultra Music Festival. if you walked through that park naked in the middle of the day, no one would even see you. Ah, the Great Park debate. Don't get me started on Parcel B.
M
I never thought you were losing your marbles before M but this comment takes the cake. Because the City doesn't police their parks, that means that we should give them away or turn them into cement? Get a grip. The face eater was on the causeway not in the park. I have been to both these parks many many times. There are chairs and sand along the water and shade trees line the walkway in Bayfront park. I have been to concerts at night --FREE CONCERTS-- in Bayfront park with hundreds of other people. I have been there New Year's Eve and have been to the Red Bull Flugtag with thousands of others. Again FREE. People are sitting in the chairs in the park and along the water, it is quite nice. Don't be a naysayer. Tim Schmand has done wonders with Bayfront park. Stay in your backyard and let us enjoy the waterfront since you don't know what you are talking about.
David Kennedy Park is always at capacity and beyond on weekends. Cape Florida and Crandon Parks receive thousands on summer weekends. But there's also a need for well maintained smaller urban parks and mini parks in dense urban neighborhoods. Especially as higher densities increase - from Brickell to downtown to other municipal downtowns in coral gables, Kendall. South Miami.
Rodney Barreto is a contrary indicator. He is always on the wrong side of common sense. No one should invest in Joe Robbie Stadium except the billionaire who owns it, Steve whatshisname.
$3 BILLION. The Marlins Stadium and Garages will cost the taxpayers well OVER $3 Billion. When you add in all the interest at 6.5% up to 8.5% spread over 50 years you get a taxpayer scam that will cost well over $3 BILLION. Thank disgraced ex-Mayors Manny Diaz and Carlos Alvarez for making Jeffrey Loria richer by diverting money from the hapless taxpayers.
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