Standing on a portable stage erected at home plate of the Milwaukee Brewers ballpark, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers recently praised the professional baseball team as an “essential part” of the state’s “culture and identity” and “economic success.”
To wonderful fanfare, Evers then signed a $500 million government grant for the stadium’s renovation, adding to a notable string of successful contracts. This year alone, about a dozen Major League Baseball and National Football League franchises have taken steps to create stadiums. .
A new wave of sports facility structures is underway. The allocation is motivated, in part, by a race to keep up speed with rivals and could collectively cost taxpayers billions of dollars, despite economists’ skepticism that the stadiums will stimulate local economies.
While the Brewers have mostly talked about the need for repairs, many of the other new projects go much further. In some cases, sports groups are even looking for new public investments to finance stadiums, while public entities continue to pay debts resulting from the last renovation circular two decades ago.
“These amenities are not physically obsolete. It’s not like concrete is falling and other people are in serious danger if they move into a game,” said Rob Baade, a retired economics professor at Lake Forest College in Illinois.
“Teams are clamoring for new stadiums because it’s in their economic interest to do so,” Baade said, adding, “The new style of stadium is one that extends beyond the stadium walls. “
New or improved stadiums provide team owners with fresh revenue opportunities from luxury suites, dining, shopping and other developments, especially for those who control the nearby area.
For many, Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, is the model: His $5 billion football stadium opened in 2020 as the centerpiece of an extensive progression that will include apartments, offices, retail stores, public parks and a theater.
The difference, however, is that Kroenke is investing the allocation privately, having snatched the Rams from a state-funded stadium in St. Petersburg. Louis who is still in the process of being reimbursed.
The Kansas City Royals unveiled two features for a new $1 billion stadium in August as part of an overall $2 billion progression. The Tampa Bay Rays followed suit in September, unveiling plans for a $1. 3 billion ballpark, the centerpiece of a $6. 5 billion progression in St. Petersburg. . Petersburg, Florida, which also includes housing, retail stores, restaurants, and bars, as well as a Museum of African American History.
They joined the Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans, all of whom have announced plans to build or start the structure of new multibillion-dollar football stadiums with luxury amenities.
Those projects all also came with public funding, including the $760 million in local bonds the Nashville City Council approved to go with $500 million in state bonds to pay for the Titans’ new $2.1 billion stadium. As part of the deal, the Titans agreed to pay off the remaining $30 million of public debt owed for their current stadium, which opened in 1999.
When the Baltimore Ravens announced a $430 million publicly funded renovation this month, the football team’s senior vice president in charge of stadium operations said the facility was “already considered by many to be high-end. “But “we’ve got to keep going” off the curve and exciting,” Tamayo said.
This extends beyond baseball and football.
On Dec. 12, the Oklahoma City electorate approved a 1-cent sales tax for a new stadium for the Thunder basketball team, which will cost at least $900 million. The next day, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced a $2 billion progression plan for the Washington Wizards. Basketball and the Washington capitals of hockey in a new arena surrounded by a performing arts center, hotels, conference center, housing and retail stores.
The stadium structure cycle has a “level of extravagance that has increased dramatically” and is expected to peak around 2030, J. C. said. Bradbury, an economics professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, has been following the projects.
At the root of the assignment of the new stadium is the assumption that groups can simply pass if they don’t get what they want, a rare but realistic option highlighted by MLB’s approval last month for the Oakland Athletics’ move from California to Las Vegas.
The team’s new $1. 5 billion baseball stadium in Nevada is subsidized by a $380 million government investment. It will not be built on the Las Vegas Raiders’ $2 billion football field, which opened in 2020 with $750 million in public investment from hotel room taxes.
The Raiders and A’s have in the past shared the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which was renovated at taxpayer expense in the 1990s to attract the Los Angeles Raiders. The remaining $13. 5 million of public debt resulting from this renewal will have to be repaid. until February 2025, during which time it’s possible that either group will simply have disappeared.
Ken Rettberg, a longtime A’s fan, is frustrated by the A’s impending departure and the generous public aid wealthy team owners receive.
“It’s crazy. . . how they can get away with giving away taxpayer money. “It’s absolutely absurd,” said Rettberg, a software engineer who lives near Oakland.
Wisconsin feared the Brewers would leave, too, taking their tax money with them.
In approving public aid for the Brewers’ stadium on Dec. 5, Evers said “the loss of this team would have had a ripple effect on families and communities in this state. “He said the team generates billions of dollars in annual revenue. effect and helps thousands of jobs.
Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio said other cities have asked, but “we’re never going anywhere else. “Records show the Brewers spent $575,000 lobbying lawmakers from January to June.
American Family Field, home of the Brewers, opened in 2001, at the height of the newest phase of national stadium construction, as cities replaced multipurpose facilities with more ostentatious, sports-specific structures. Public investment covered nearly three-quarters of the cost of $392 million.
Wisconsin’s latest stadium deal includes nearly $674 million for renovations, including a total of about $500 million from the state, county and city.
Ultimately, not everyone supports efforts to renovate or replace stadiums, or the trend of asking taxpayers to bear the cost.
The Titans’ new stadium carries the nation’s largest public subsidy for a professional sports facility. But voters delivered a rebuke in September, electing a progressive councilman who voted against the subsidy to serve as mayor.
The Chicago Bears purchased a former suburban racetrack in February as a prospect for a new football stadium and surrounding development, but they have yet to make a potentially moot move from downtown. The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority still owes $589 million through 2032 in government bonds issued for the renovation of the Bears’ existing stadium two decades ago.
Many economists argue that public investment in stadiums is not worth it, as sports tend to divert discretionary spending away from other entertainment bureaucracies that are not generating new revenue.
“When you ask economists if we fund sports stadiums, they can’t say ‘no’ fast enough,” Bradbury said. “And yet, when you ask a politician, they can’t say ‘yes’ fast enough. “
Public opinion is mixed.
A survey conducted last year for Arizona State University’s Global Sport Institute found that professional sports groups were perceived as a mandatory cultural component of communities by 60 percent of respondents. Still, less than a fraction believe that state and local governments provide public investment for sports stadiums.
The proposal to build a new Royals stadium closer to downtown Kansas City has prompted thousands of enthusiasts to sign up on a Facebook site to rally in favor of keeping the existing stadium. The importance of public investment is part of their objection.
“We have a stadium here in top condition, recently renovated, and we’re still paying for it,” said Royals fan Jim Meyer, the website’s administrator. He added: “There is no genuine explanation as to why to update it. “