No Sports Economic Multiplier

Evidence against the multiplier
02/17/09 - CafeHayek by Russell Roberts

[edited] Almost all academic economists agree about the impact of subsidies and spending on sports stadiums. Building a stadium "creates" jobs, but the best estimates of NET job creation are ZERO.

From the survey paper "Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Subsidies for Sports Franchises, Stadiums, and Mega-Events?" (PDF), 09/2008 :

Sports subsidies are unwarranted, based on economic intuition, a survey of economists, and a review of the literature on the economic impact of professional sports. There may be some local economic benefits, but the empirical findings strongly reject sports subsidies due to a lack of economic benefits.

There is a large and growing peer-reviewed economics literature done by economists, as opposed to that of scholars in public policy, urban development, and planning departments. This research is almost unanimous that stadiums, arenas, sports franchises, and sport mega-events have no consistent, positive impact on jobs, income, or tax revenues for the associated communities.