Tax Schemes for Sports Venues

Abstract

Your tax dollars pay for sports stadiums. You read that right: your hard-earned money is given to billionaires to help fund their businesses and hobbies. In this chapter you’ll learn about the wide variety of taxes used to finance stadium and arena construction, and about who benefits the most from the construction of sports stadiums and arenas. Key takeaways: (1) Proposed stadium projects often give rise to rosy predictions that millions of dollars in benefits will flood the local economy, but studies after the fact often find a small or even negative impact on the economy. (2) The costs and benefits of taxation to subsidize stadiums need to be carefully considered; while policymakers tend to sell only the benefits, voters should be permitted to weigh stadium spending against alternatives.

Keywords: sports arenas, tax subsidies, sports, athletics, stadiums, tax policy, community development

JEL Classification: H2, H7, H71, L83, Z2