Stadium Subsidies a Losing Deal for Taxpayers July 25, 2005 Andrew Chamberlain Andrew Chamberlain 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. Read the full piece here. Stay informed on the tax policies impacting you. Subscribe to get insights from our trusted experts delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe Share Tweet Share Email Topics Center for State Tax Policy The District of Columbia Tags Jock Taxes