Braves 1, taxpayers 0

On April 17, the Gwinnett Braves began play at their new home in Gwinnett County. The publicly funded stadium was initially slated to cost $45 million, but the price quickly ballooned to $64 million, with no word yet on what the final construction tab will be. In addition, the county has been unable to sell naming rights to the stadium, which the county anticipated returning $500,000 annually to cover 20 percent of the debt service.

Despite recent county government budget cuts, layoffs and tax hikes, the commissioners have insisted that the stadium will increase economic activity more than enough to offset construction costs. However, economists have long known that the frequently touted economic benefits of sports facilities are pure fantasy.

A recent survey of the American Economic Association found that 85 percent of its members favored eliminating all public subsidies to professional sports. It is easy to see why economists —- a community notorious for its disagreements —- reached such an overwhelming consensus on this issue: Study after study has failed to find any economic impact of sports facilities.

A recent article surveying the economics literature by Dennis Coates and Brad Humphreys reports: “There now exists almost 20 years of research on the economic impact of professional sports franchises and facilities on the local economy. The results in this literature are strikingly consistent… articles published in peer reviewed economics journals contain almost no evidence that professional sports franchises and facilities have a measurable economic impact on the economy.”

How could anyone argue that thousands of fans spending their incomes at a previously non-existent minor-league baseball stadium does not increase economic output? It is quite simple: money spent at the ballpark has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is other entertainment options within Gwinnett. The county isn’t getting any richer, it’s just shuffling its existing wealth around. And to make matters worse, the bulk of the spending will be transferred to Liberty Media shareholders (who own the Braves) outside the county.

What about the county’s impact studies that project the stadium will generate up to $15 million annually in economic activity? The favorable economic projections by a hired consulting firm and the county’s own staff economist were intended to justify the project rather than to serve as an objective economic impact analysis. No economists at any of Georgia’s many universities were consulted.

Furthermore, the $15 million estimate is too big to be believable. To generate $15 million in economic benefits the stadium would have to attract 54 percent of its attendance from outside the county, with each family of four spending $144 per game. According to Team Marketing Report’s Fan Cost Index, that is 45 percent more than the Triple-A average and 30 percent more than the most expensive Triple-A franchise in Indianapolis. At that price, why not travel down I-85 to Turner Field which offers the major-league experience for $157?

The stadium will no doubt be a community focal point, possibly spreading good will among citizens. But instead of honestly presenting the facts before voters, the board of commissioners approved the deal without any opportunity for community feedback.

County Administrator Jock Connell stated that the stadium would “pay for itself from Day One,” which was an outright lie.

County commissioners continue to tout the economic benefits of the plan, which are too ridiculous to believe and run counter to everything economists know about the economic impact of sports facilities.

If you go to the game vs. Charlotte tonight, be sure to cheer your hometown team; after all, baseball should be an escape from the stress of the business and political worlds.

Save your boos for the commissioners who purposely misled the public for the sake of scoring some cheap political points.

> J.C. Bradbury teaches sports economics at Kennesaw State and operates Sabernomics.com.