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[Seattle Times] 15 years after moving Sonics, now it’s the Thunder asking for publicly funded arena
(www.seattletimes.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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I will never understand why public funds should pay for >50% of the funds for a privately owned sports clubs arena
This is one of the biggest taxpayer rip-offs in the country. Under the guise of the limited jobs it creates. Study after study proves what a rip-off it is. New York taxpayers are about to foot 1 billion so the Bills can keep coming up short of expectations.
The data for it's economic impact is murky, but part of that is because it's hard to quantify. They're an economic multiplier. Depending on the city it will have differing levels of impact across a multitude of businesses. But part of the intangibles are creating a brand identity for the city. In your example it also makes Buffalo a bigger travel destination. I'm a lot more likely to travel to Buffalo to visit Niagara Falls and catch a Bills game than I am to travel there to only do one of those things.
I wouldn’t say Buffalo getting a new stadium makes them a bigger travel destination. If anything, Buffalo’s new stadium shows how much of an absolute waste these publicly funded stadiums are.
Niagara Falls has the majority of its visitors come in the spring and summer which is outside of when the Bills play so you aren’t really getting any dual tourism benefits. The new Buffalo stadium is also open air which most likely rules it out of getting any major entertainment events like concerts during the winter. And for Buffalo as a city it will always play second fiddle to Toronto for a tourist destination so a new stadium doesn’t really push the needle for more people to vacation in upstate NY and not stay in Toronto.
Like you said, professional sports can bring a lot of intangible benefits for a city such as brand identity or lumping them into infrastructure improvements. However, the $850 million public contribution NY is giving towards building a stadium could easily be used for other infrastructure improvements that would economically improve Buffalo.
That's a fair argument.
Counterpoint is I've heard of Buffalo and part of that reason is because of the Bills. People gravitate towards latching onto sports team and it makes them feel invested in them and their city. I have no connection with either city but if I get a job offer to move to Buffalo, NY or to Bismarck, ND you damn well know which one I'm picking. It's a level of prestige it gives a city. If they have a sports team I know they're going to be a moderately okay place to live with things to do.
Also $850 million spread out over 20 million New Yorkers is a bit different than $900 million spread out across 4 million Oklahomans.