Public cost of Safeco Field
In an article today at Baseball Prospectus, Neil deMause writes about a May article in “The Journal of Sports Economics” by Judith Long (abstract, reading the article itself online costs $35*), in which she attempts to calculate the actual cost to the public of a stadium, which includes tax breaks (including property tax breaks), land value, infrastructure (building a new I-90 on-ramp next to the park (which I think is not included in this number).
Relevant to Mariner fans: public cost of Safeco Field stands at $553 million. This is a huge increase from the standard accounting (which is that the stadium cost $500m+, of which the public only picked up ~$400m).
Update! Reader Sal informed me that Long’s posted a lot of good stuff on her faculty website for your perusal. Thanks, Sal (and Judith Long for posting).**
* this is why, even though the Journal would seem to have a ton of stuff I should read and be up on, I don’t subscribe.
** sometimes I wish I’d gone to a really good school instead of the 50th-best university in the country***
*** Go Huskies!