Hidden subsidies and the public ownership of sports facilities: a case study of Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara

Baumann, Robert; Matheson, Victor A.; O’Connor, Debra J.

doi:10.1504/ijsmm.2020.110832

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Even more importantly, stadiums are often constructed with large public subsidies (Baumann et al, 2017). There is also the possibility of spatial disconnect between the taxpayers subsidizing the stadium and the areas receiving the visitor inflows.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is also the possibility of spatial disconnect between the taxpayers subsidizing the stadium and the areas receiving the visitor inflows. Indeed, San Francisco provided no subsidy for Levi's Stadium while Santa Clara provided $114 million in funds for the stadium (Baumann et al, 2017). The NFL has a pattern of granting Super Bowl hosting rights to cities building new stadiums; all four of the cities included in this paper hosted Super Bowls two years after opening new stadiums.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Does the Super Bowl Affect Host City Tourism?

Heller

Stephenson

2020

Journal of Sports Economics

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This paper uses a unique dataset containing more than eight years of daily data to examine the effect of the Super Bowl on hotel room rentals, rates, and room revenue in four recent host cities. The findings include (1) the net gain in rentals is considerably fewer than the gross number of rooms rented, (2) benefits are heterogeneous across cities, (3) the areas that benefit are not always those located close to stadiums, and (4) nearly 90% of hotel room revenue gained is because of increased room rates which means concerns about leakages from host cities’ regional economies are salient.

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Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Does the Super Bowl Affect Host City Tourism?

Heller

Stephenson

2020

Journal of Sports Economics

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“…The Atlanta Falcons received $200 million in bonds to help fund Mercedes-Benz Stadium (2017); however, the team retains perpetual access to the dedicated funding from hotel tax revenue after the bonds are paid off, which has a net present value of $700 million to the team owner (Tucker 2016). The widely reported $114 million public funds devoted to Levi's Stadium (2014) does not include the $213 million in additional tax exemption benefits that shell ownership by the Santa Clara Stadium Authority provides the San Francisco 49ers (Baumann, Matheson and O'Connor 2020). In both cases, the complex financial arrangements have resulted in the lower dollar amounts often being interpreted as the public cost of the subsidies, which understate the total financial burdens to the funding jurisdictions.…”

Section: Improve Transparencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Public policy toward professional sports stadiums: A review

Bradbury,

Coates,

Humphreys

2023

J Policy Anal Manage

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This article informs public policy toward professional sports stadiums, which state and local governments routinely subsidize. Our analysis provides a history of stadium construction and funding in the U.S., documenting trends that portend a forthcoming new wave of stadiums. Despite robust evidence that stadiums are not economic development catalysts and confer limited social benefits, public outlays persist and exhibit a positive growth trajectory, which could prove costly to government budgets in coming decades. We review contemporary justifications for public subsidies, focusing on proposed salutary development and budgeting strategies. Economic research continues to demonstrate that stadiums remain poor public investments, and optimal public funding of professional sports venues is substantially less than typical subsidy levels. We examine economic, political, and institutional factors that contribute to the disconnect between research and policy, and we provide recommendations to promote sound public policy.

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