The Economic Impact and Civic Pride Effects of Sports Teams and Mega‐Events: Do The Public and the Professionals Agree?

Abstract

Often sports leagues, organising committees, and team owners justify the use of public funds to build sports stadiums by the perceived economic impacts and civic pride generated by the teams or mega-events. Since the 1980s many economic studies have examined the economic impact and civic pride created by professional sports teams. Most of the economic literature finds sports teams or mega-events have little or no economic impact, but there are mixed findings on the magnitude of civic pride. Overall, most of the economic literature suggests that the benefits created by sports teams or events do not outweigh the cost of public subsidies provided. We conduct a survey of public opinion on US residents' perceptions of economic impacts and civic pride benefits from mega-events such as the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics. Our study asks the question: Do residents believe that mega-events and sports teams generate positive economic impacts and civic pride or not? We find that, like economists, the public doubts that public funding of mega-events is a good idea.JEL codes: L83, Z2, Z21.

Estimating the Effect of Sports Facilities on Local Area Commercial Rents: Evidence From Brooklyn’s Barclays Center

“…As Harger, Humphreys, and Ross (2016) note, three strands of research are commonly found in the literature: local income, employment, and wage effects; property value effects; and sports’ ability to generate intangible benefits. Reviews of these can be found in Coates and Humphreys (2008), Horn, Cantor, and Fort (2015), Wicker, Whitehead, Johnson, and Mason (2015), and Groothius and Rotthoff (2016). A fourth but much smaller strand of research considers the effect of sports and facilities on government’s tax base and revenue, which thus far has focused on the sales tax (Baade, Baumann, & Matheson, 2011; Coates & Depken, 2009, 2011; Propheter, 2014).…”

The Lure of New Jobs: How Framing Impacts Perceptions of Local Subsidies for Sports Teams

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Does Proximity to a New Sports Facility Affect Existing Businesses’ Survival Time?

“…The literature on sports and tangible economic development is voluminous. While it is well-known inside (Coates & Humphreys, 2008) and outside (Groothuis & Rotthoff, 2016) the academy that sports facilities have a poor track record as catalysts of economic development, there remains a glaring gap in this literature: How do sports facilities affect existing businesses? The emphasis is placed to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that the tangible economic outcomes scholars have considered to date are not, strictly speaking, benefits to existing business owners.…”