Local officials and taxpayers must decide whether or not to build new homes for both the Yankees and Mets within the next few years. Even before the fall of a joint expansion at Yankee Stadium during the 1998 season, the Yankees had expressed a desire for a new stadium after their lease expired in 2002. Neither team has progressed far enough in discussions with state and local politicians to determine exact financing schemes, however the average public investment in baseball stadiums built since 1990 has been 71 percent of total stadium costs. While economists constantly throw around figures in the billions and trillions, it is easier to think of that amount of money in specifics. Another way to look at the situation is that the public money for these stadiums could fund the New York City Sanitation Department for an entire year.
Subsidies comprise fungible money that is given to franchise owners by the taxpayers.
Considering that few stadiums last as long as Yankee Stadium and that the more likely average is the 35 years of use at Shea Stadium, that 6.5 years of direct subsidy is a considerable amount. The Mets' situation is similar to that of the Yankees, in that they are planning on building a new stadium within the next five years. Of course, readers who follow the exploding salaries of professional athletes are aware that these increases have far outpaced the economic gain of the average fan. In many ways, player salaries are similar to the stock prices of many dot-coms on Wall Street that until a short time ago tended to rise regardless of economic realities. But the basic laws of the marketplace have caught up with the dot-coms and brought them back to earth.