Or for that matter the Texas Rangers, who also play in Arlington but at least didn’t use the Dallas name.
(For those wondering WHY the Cowboys and Rangers play there, it’s right in between Dallas and Fort Worth.)
Replace “shopping center” with “WalMart” and you have exactly the same situation. In fact, if you travel around America, you will find many WalMarts built just outside the city limits of the small towns they serve. Why? Because WalMart doesn’t want to pay the real estate taxes, or charge customers the city sales tax.
In Missouri, cities can declare a neighborhood “blighted” and give a property tax abatement to a developer willing to come in. Right in my own affluent suburb, we had a Target move in to such an area, and when the abatement ran out, they built a new store a mile away in a new blighted area (same city) with a new tax abatement. When that abatement runs out, there’s a suburb next door which is ready and willing to blight a neighborhood as soon as a developer lines up a Target or WalMart as an anchorr.
Most real estate taxes are county wide, and the bulk of sales taxes are state wide. Sure some big cities may tack on a 1/2%, but I sincerely doubt many “small towns” do.
In any case, only a handful of sports fan benefit, while everyone needs groceries.
please note that all athletes (not owners) have city income taxes deducted from their pay that goes back to city, in fact even more if a player actually lives in the city
talk to St Louis about Rams, where they’re stuck with unusable stadium
and who also destroyed the USFL
When Target moved, did any business move into its old building, or did that neighborhood become reenblightified?
It was torn down and a new developer put in a condo development. I’m sure that developer got a tax break, at least from the property being rezoned from commercial to residential.
In a letter sent to team owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam, Cuyahoga County officials said Sunday they’re backing a proposed $1.2 billion renovation of the team’s current stadium and are committed to keeping the NFL franchise in downtown Cleveland “for generations to come.”…
The Browns’ proposal came after the city of Cleveland submitted giving $461 million toward a massive renovation of the current 65,000-seat stadium, which was built in 1999, and the re-development of its surrounding property.
Nice that Cleveland has an extra half billion dollars in petty cash…
By “Generations” they mean “for about twenty years and then we’ll demand a new stadium.”
And Jackson County isn’t helping.
RE: A’s/Raiders - Las Vegas might be the one exception to this rule. The city is very heavily dependent on tourist revenue and stuff that brings in more tourists can be a boon to the city. I’m not saying it always is - there is a cost/benefit to be done, but Vegas is a unique case. The various KCs and Cleveland situations should be looking at very different economics.
Also worth noting, in both the cases of the Raiders’ stadium (Allegiant Stadium) and the proposed A’s stadium (anticipated to begin construction next year), while public funding was involved, most of the cost was/will be paid through private means.
Allegiant cost $1.9 billion, of which $750 million was taxpayer-provided (apparently, a bond issuance, to be paid off through a hotel room tax). The A’s stadium is projected to cost $1.5 billion, with the current agreement stating that $380 million will come from public funding (currently proposed as a combination of tax credits and a bond issuance).
Why would I want to go to Las Vegas to watch a football game? Vegas built itself on entertainment you couldn’t get anywhere else - starting with sin, Sinatra and slot machines right up to Cirque du Soleil, Adele, and the Sphere. I can see a pro football game in Green Bay, Kansas City, or Jacksonville.
I imagine that no small number of football fans happily build a Vegas trip around attending a road game for their favorite team, as well as going to the casinos, shows, etc. But, that said, many of them might have gone to Vegas anyway.
Yes, but if you’re a Jags fan and you plan to splurge on 1 road trip game this year, are you going to KC or Sin City? Especially when the weather gets colder up North.
But some non-zero number probably wouldn’t have. I actually doubt that it will ever be a true money-maker for the city, but they’ll get closer to break-even than most.
Football? Never. But I will happily (post-retirement) build a multi-day trip to Vegas around an As homestand against a team I root for. Any time the Dodgers, Padres or Mariners are there, so am I. I will also show up to boo the Yankees, Angels or Asterisks.
Vegas could also use a stadium for other tourist-attracting events (e.g. massive concerts) as they have the infrastructure in place.
Mostly I wonder how conducive the weather is to outdoor sporting events (or indeed massive concerts), but at a glance it looks like only the summer months are likely to be problematic. There’s also the issue of water…
Vegas already has an enclosed football stadium and the Sphere, not to mention a couple of good sized arenas.
Exactly. In addition, while ground has not yet been broken on it, the planned baseball stadium for the A’s when they relocate from Oakland will also be enclosed.