Taxpayer subsidies don't pay: Milwaukee Bucks arena backers are bucking history

Taxpayer subsidies don't pay: Milwaukee Bucks arena backers are bucking history - Watchdog.org
MADISON, Wis. — For those banking on an economic boom from a new taxpayer-subsidized Milwaukee Bucks arena, it may be time for a history lesson.
“Most studies find very little economic impact from sports facilities, which would, of course, suggest the argument for public subsidies is very weak,” said Richard Alm, researcher at Southern Methodist University’s O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom.
...Gov. Scott Walker summed up the cold hard facts as he sees them.
“We’ve considered the financial impacts on the state should the Bucks stay or go, and quite simply, we found it’s cheaper to keep them,” the Republican governor said at a Capitol press conference.
“Cheaper to keep them” doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement of a big-ticket plan that critics see as ransom in a hostage situation.
But Walker’s point is plain: 

If the city of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County and the state don’t come up with a way to help pay for a new playground for the Bucks, the NBA will make good on its threat to buy back the team from its owners and then shop the franchise to some other city willing to play ball.
... research is backed and cited by a study in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis,which also noted that almost all economists and development specialists, at least those not working for a chamber of commerce or similar organization, conclude the rate of return a city receives for its investment is generally below that of alternative projects.
“In addition, evidence suggests that cities and metro areas that have invested heavily in sports stadiums and arenas have, on average, experienced slower income growth than those that have not,” the report noted.
...“Very little evidence exists to suggest that sporting events are better at attracting tourism dollars to a city than other activities,” the report states. 

“More often than not, tourists who attend a baseball or hockey game, for example, are in town on business or are visiting family and would have spent the money on another activity if the sports outlet were not available.”
...The impact study on the Bucks Arena, prepared by a Marquette University professor for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, estimates development of Milwaukee’s long-vacant Park East Corridor would add 700 apartment units, 225,000 square feet of office space and 280,000 square feet of retail.
Zimbalist said there also are the intangibles, the positive social and cultural impacts of a city hosting a professional sports team. 

Those are impossible to measure.
Taxpayer subsidies for sports facilities in general is bad public policy, Alm said.
“We don’t subsidize the local supermarket, if the owner threatens to leave town,” he said. 

“The difference is professional sports is a monopoly where sports owners can extract these kinds of deals.”