Pro stadium people scream that the new stadium would increase economic activity, up employment, attract new industry, and attract more tourists to our state. Actually these things aren t true on the average and the average is most professional cities. No recent facility appears to have earned anything approaching a reasonable return on investment. No recent facility has been self-financing in terms of its impact on net tax revenues. Regardless of whether the unit of analysis is a local neighborhood, a city, or an entire metropolitan area, the economic benefits of sports facilities are de minimus.
Sports facilities attract neither tourists nor new industry.
Probably the most successful export facility is Oriole Park, where about a third of the crowd at every game comes from outside the Baltimore area. While we could use money for more important things like education, that would benefit us more in the long haul. If our state were looking for an investment with a good return, we would be money in the bank with an investment into our education program. Jobs created by Stadium Subsidies By Trent Eidem Arguing that building a new stadium in Minnesota would not create new jobs is an exercise in futility. A new stadium would obviously create new jobs in the community in which the stadium was built.