Analysis Of The Article 'Publicly Financed Sports Stadiums Are A Game That Taxpayers Lose'

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In the article “Publicly Financed Sports Stadiums Are a Game That Taxpayers Lose” by Jeffrey Dorfman of Forbes highlights the financing of new stadiums throughout the country. In his article he hits on the controversial topic of how stadiums use public taxpayers money to fund and pay for the construction of the lavish stadiums. Dorfman adamantly states that local governments should not finance a stadium with public money because only team owners, and a few businesses benefit from the events that are held in the stadium. The economic impact of the stadium is not the same as tax revenue and when evaluating events, the visitor’s budget must be accounted for. The stadium will produce economic activity by bringing in thousands of people, but it will not justify using public funds because the tax revenue from fans …show more content…

The hotel stay probably produces “$200-250 in tax revenue, the restaurant bills another $20, and the game ticket another $35. That means the over $3000 in spending really amounts to around $300 in tax revenue” (Dorfman, 2015). So while the fan may bring an economic boost to local businesses, the tax revenue is not near enough to justify using public funds to help finance the new stadium. Also by attending the game, it takes money that would be spent at other local activities and uses them at the game. For example when a fan buys a ticket of $400 to see a NFL game, that’s $400 not going to the local restaurants, Movie Theater, and amusement parks. This is called the substitution effect and it simply states that by spending money on a new activity in the community just means that’s your money is going from one local entity to another, which brings no new tax revenue to the local economy. Overall Dorfman does not believe that local governments should use public funds to finance luxurious

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