Stadium Subsidies a Losing Deal for Taxpayers
One of our talented summer analysts—Eric A. Miller of the University of Rochester landed a piece in Sunday’s Washington Post laying out the case against a taxpayer-funded stadium in our nation’s capital. Here’s an excerpt:
In its quest to bring professional baseball back to Washington, the D.C. Council agreed to build a new stadium for the Washington Nationals that is to be largely financed by taxpayer dollars. This is a sweetheart deal that will allow Major League Baseball to sell the team at a price that virtually guarantees it a profit while likely creating a burden for D.C. taxpayers…
Economists seldom agree, but the many studies done over the past decade all arrived at the same conclusion: Publicly funded stadiums do not deliver the benefits they promise…
The D.C. Council estimates that a new stadium will create 380 direct and indirect jobs for D.C. residents, but most of these jobs will be day-of-game positions for food vendors, parking lot attendants and other unskilled workers.
Local taxpayers will be forking over more than $1 million a job for such part-time, low-wage positions that won’t even pay enough to support a family.
Was this page helpful to you?
Thank You!
The Tax Foundation works hard to provide insightful tax policy analysis. Our work depends on support from members of the public like you. Would you consider contributing to our work?
Contribute to the Tax FoundationShare This Article!
Let us know how we can better serve you!
We work hard to make our analysis as useful as possible. Would you consider telling us more about how we can do better?
Give Us Feedback