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D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute • Friends of the Earth
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| For Immediate Release Thursday, October 21, 2004 |
For Further
Information, Contact: Pete Sepp or Annie Patnaude/NTU, (703) 683-5700 Ed Lazere/DCFPI, (202) 408-1080 Chris Weiss/FOE, (202) 222-0746 Steve Ellis/TCSA, (202) 546-8500 |
(Washington, DC) - The huge public subsidy behind the District's baseball stadium scheme "will not generate notable economic or fiscal benefits for the city" - that's the assessment of 90 prominent economists from across the nation who signed a joint statement presented today at a downtown event hosted by several organizations opposed to the $440 million plan.
"Most studies find that new sports stadiums do not increase employment or incomes and sometimes have a modest negative effect on local economies," the signatories noted. Although the new facility "may shift some entertainment spending from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs to the District," this outcome is not likely to justify the outlay of tax dollars. Nor is a stadium likely to lead to an economic renaissance in Anacostia, because few of the financial windfalls accrue to neighboring businesses.
Such persistent doubts over the viability of the DC stadium deal were seconded at today's event on the steps of the Wilson Building, where several groups from across the ideological spectrum urged officials to reconsider the project before public funds begin to flow in earnest.
"District leaders and taxpayers literally cannot afford to ignore this major league warning from economic experts," said National Taxpayers Union (NTU) Vice President for Communications Pete Sepp. "No matter how elegant the Mayor's p-r pitch is, the stadium plan is a fiscal foul ball that would hit DC with a huge headache. New tax burdens on city businesses will ultimately fall on city residents, in the form of higher prices, lower wages, and lost jobs."
"The sobering words from these economists tell us that the Mayor's plan to use a baseball stadium to revitalize the Anacostia waterfront is mere wishful thinking," said Ed Lazere, Director of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI). "The District should not spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a stadium based on such unrealistic claims."
"Public financing of a baseball stadium gets us farther away, not closer, to the realization of a revitalized and unpolluted Anacostia waterfront," said Chris Weiss, an advocate with Friends of the Earth (FOE). "It's simply ridiculous that we spend money we don't have on a baseball stadium that a vast body of research suggests will not generate notable economic benefits for District residents."
"This stadium is a World Series windfall for baseball," said Steve Ellis, Vice President of Programs for Taxpayers for Common Sense Action (TCSA), a national, non-partisan budget watchdog group. "However, the benefits of the stadium proposal are nothing more than economic field dreams for the District. We may build it but the dollars will never come."
Note: The economists 'statement, along with a list of signatories, is available upon request or online at www.ntu.org. [It is also below.] For information on the organizations cited above, visit: www.dcfpi.org (D. C. Fiscal Policy Institute), www.foe.org (Friends of the Earth), www.taxpayer.net (Taxpayers for Common Sense Action), and www.ntu.org (National Taxpayers Union).
Dear Mayor Williams and DC Council Members:
A vast body of economic research on the impact of baseball stadiums suggests that the proposed $440 million baseball stadium in the District of Columbia will not generate notable economic or fiscal benefits for the city. Most studies find that new sports stadiums do not increase employment or incomes and sometimes have a modest negative effect on local economies. The reason appears to be that sports stadiums do not increase overall entertainment spending but merely shift it from other entertainment venues to the stadium.
Research also suggests that a baseball stadium alone will not revitalize the Anacostia waterfront. Because sports stadiums are not used most of the year, they do not stimulate much development outside the stadium. Most modern stadiums include restaurant and other entertainment offerings, limiting the money that goes to neighboring businesses.
A new stadium cannot be expected to generate a net increase in economic activity in the Washington metropolitan area, but it may shift some entertainment spending from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs into the District. Nevertheless, the economic benefits to the District are not likely to outweigh the large stadium subsidy proposed by the District. At least 80 percent of the costs of the $440 million stadium are expected to be supported with public funds.
In short, it is dubious to justify the use of public funds to subsidize construction of a DC baseball stadium on economic development grounds.
Sincerely,
| Henry J. Aaron Brookings Institution Geoffrey Andron Robert A. Baade Charles W. Baird Doug Bandow Andy H. Barnett John H. Beck M. Douglas Berg David J. Berri John Berthoud Elizabeth C. Bogan Samuel Bostaph Scott Bradford John B. Bryant Dennis Coates John P. Cochran Christian Crowley Otto A. Davis Gregory J. Delemeester Craig Depken John Dobra Robert M. Dunn Jr. Frank Falero Arthur Fleisher III Micah Frankel Kenneth R. French Dennis E. Gale John M. Gandar David Garthoff |
David E.R. Gay University of Arkansas Otis Gilley David Gold Peter Gordon Dennis Halcoussis Robert Hahn David R. Henderson Pat Hendershott Brad Humphreys F. Jerry Ingram Bruce Johnson David L. Kaserman Raymond J. Keating David Laband Thomas M. Lenard Stan Liebowitz R. Ashley Lyman Doug MacKenzie Michael L. Marlow Victor Matheson Fred S. McChesney Carlisle Moody Richard F. Muth Roger Noll James B. O'Neill Jeffrey Owen Allen Parkman William S. Peirce Philip Porter |
Barry W. Poulson University of Colorado Richard W. Rahn W. Robert Reed Jay R. Ritter Paul H. Rubin Raymond Sauer Martin Schmidt Michael A. Schuyler Carlos Seiglie Stephen Shmanske Rich Shields William F. Shughart II John J. Siegfried Neil T. Skaggs James F. Smith Mark Steckbeck E. Frank Stephenson Courtenay C. Stone Alexander Tabarrok John Tatom Henry Townsend Leo Troy Richard K. Vedder Scott Wallsten John T. Wenders Robert Whaples Walter E. Williams Dennise P. Wilson Gary Wolfram Kate Zhou Andrew Zimbalist Benjamin Zycher |
*Institutions are listed for informational purposes only.
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