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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf You Build It, They Might Not Come: The Risky Economics of Sports Stadiums
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/if-you-build-it-they-might-not-come-the-risky-economics-of-sports-stadiums/260900/In June, the city council of Glendale, Arizona, decided to spend $324 million on the Phoenix Coyotes, an ice hockey team that plays in Glendale's Jobing.com Arena.
The team has been owned by the league itself since its former owner, Jerry Moyes, declared bankruptcy in 2009. For each of the past two seasons, Glendale has paid $25 million to the league to manage the Coyotes, even as the city faced millions of dollars in budget deficits. Now, Greg Jamison, who is also part of the organization that owns the NHL's San Jose Sharks, is making a bid for the team, and would therefore be the beneficiary of the subsidies.
To put the deal in perspective, Glendale's budget gap for 2012 is about $35 million. As the city voted to give a future Coyotes owner hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, it laid off 49 public workers, and even considered putting its city hall and police station up as collateral to obtain a loan, according to the Arizona Republic. (The latter plan was ultimately scrapped.)
Overall, Glendale is not only on the hook for $15 million per year over two decades to a potential Coyotes owner, but also a $12 million annual debt payment for construction of its arena. In return, according to the Republic, the city receives a measly "$2.2 million in annual rent payments, ticket surcharges, sales taxes and other fees." Even if the Coyotes were to dominate the league like no other in recent memory and return to the Stanley Cup Finals year after year, the city would still lose $9 million annually.
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If You Build It, They Might Not Come: The Risky Economics of Sports Stadiums (Original Post)
xchrom
Sep 2012
OP
There's just something about ice hockey in Arizona that doesn't quite compute.
Buns_of_Fire
Sep 2012
#1
Buns_of_Fire
(17,175 posts)1. There's just something about ice hockey in Arizona that doesn't quite compute.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)2. Ice hockey does not belong in the desert SW.
Idiocy!
rfranklin
(13,200 posts)3. Subsidizing sports stadiums is criminal...
Another form of privatizing profits and dumping losses on the public.
goodword
(44 posts)4. Already Have a Stadium
in my city, but suddenly that one's not good enough. We must have another.
Apparently there are still lots of people in this country with money enough to go to these events. I don't; but if they can draw enough of a crowd then I guess it's worth it. Does create jobs and bring money into the city.
CurtEastPoint
(18,641 posts)5. Atlanta here also. I drive by the GA Dome every morning and wonder
exactly what is wrong w/this stadium? Where does it end? I know the GA World Congress Center uses it and would like a larger arena but sheesh...it holds 75K now.