Gwinnett County stadium may help everyone but Gwinnettians
September 8, 2008 at 2:31 am by Thomas Wheatley in NewsYa know that baseball stadium under construction in Gwinnett County? The one the county commission recently agreed — without any public input — to support with an additional $19 million of taxpayer dollars?
“I’m still trying to figure out how this is going to pay for itself,” [Gwinnett County resident Don Shaw] said, echoing an oft-quoted line from County Administrator Jock Connell in January, on the day county officials announced they’d reached a deal to build the stadium and relocate the top minor-league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves to Gwinnett.
Connell said he anticipated the stadium “paying for itself from day one.”
It might seem that way, “Jock.” (Gwinnett is a land rich with irony.) But a bunch of academics — as well as our very own John Sugg — politely disagree.
From the bookworms in the first link:
The theory of the sports arena as a catalyst for economic revitalization is far from a slam dunk, according to Villanova University Professor of Sociology Rick Eckstein. The co-author of “Public Dollars, Private Stadiums: The Battle over Building Sports Stadiums” said that of the dozens of publicly financed projects he has studied, not one has lived up to its financial promises.
Eckstein began studying the issue in depth after seeing a stadium referendum shot down by Pittsburgh voters in the late 1990s, only for city leaders to fund it through other means later. He has been quoted widely by media outlets throughout the recent stadium boom, making few friends among sports fans along the way.
When you add up the tangible economic indicators—such as jobs created, tax ratables and sales revenues—it never justifies the investment of public dollars in construction, infrastructure upgrades, policing and other needs, he said. Only the team owners make out big in the end.
What would help Gwinnett? Besides light-rail service to get all those criminals out of the county and back here in the city where they belong?
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September 10th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I am trying to understand. How did we get into this mess? The county never asked citizens if they wanted the stadium and we most certainly did not apporove an addional funds to the project. This seems like more traffic and more problems. it just does not seem fair.