Submitted by Guest999999 (not verified) on Thu, 02/09/2012 - 11:08am.
check out things like Qualcomm stadium. The Chargers pay the city 2.5 million dollars a year in rent yet the city LOSES $17.1 million dollars per year on it. That's for a Major League Football team AND they're paying rent. There have been large scale studies done on the impact of building stadiums for professional teams and their economic impact on a city (Baade and Matheson, Sigfried & Zimbalist, etc) that found that in nearly every case (and during a good economy I might add) it was a losing proposition for the city and sometimes to the tune of several million dollars per year.
The economic impact is WAY overinflated. Sure some people might spend money on going to a baseball game. However, they get that money from somewhere and it's almost always at the expense of spending it at another local business. I think you'd be hard pressed to find many local businesses that would be tickled to lose a revenue stream right now.
It will add to congestion and parking woes for the restaurants and music establishments downtown on game nights. People are going to eat hot dogs at the game, not go eat at a nice restaurant and sit in a stadium for 3 hours. Meanwhile, others will avoid the downtown area and its businesses on game nights due to the lack of parking and congestion.
Don't even get me started on the crime aspect.
This is a BAD deal for the citizens of Wilmington and they need to be screaming mad.
you're kidding yourself
check out things like Qualcomm stadium. The Chargers pay the city 2.5 million dollars a year in rent yet the city LOSES $17.1 million dollars per year on it. That's for a Major League Football team AND they're paying rent. There have been large scale studies done on the impact of building stadiums for professional teams and their economic impact on a city (Baade and Matheson, Sigfried & Zimbalist, etc) that found that in nearly every case (and during a good economy I might add) it was a losing proposition for the city and sometimes to the tune of several million dollars per year.
The economic impact is WAY overinflated. Sure some people might spend money on going to a baseball game. However, they get that money from somewhere and it's almost always at the expense of spending it at another local business. I think you'd be hard pressed to find many local businesses that would be tickled to lose a revenue stream right now.
It will add to congestion and parking woes for the restaurants and music establishments downtown on game nights. People are going to eat hot dogs at the game, not go eat at a nice restaurant and sit in a stadium for 3 hours. Meanwhile, others will avoid the downtown area and its businesses on game nights due to the lack of parking and congestion.
Don't even get me started on the crime aspect.
This is a BAD deal for the citizens of Wilmington and they need to be screaming mad.