The New Yankee Stadium and You

Mark Yost in the Wall Street Journal this morning has a searing indictment of sports stadia development. He singles out, among a few others, the new Yankee Stadium going up in the South Bronx.

A 1998 report by the New York City Independent Budget Office found no "economic rationale for assuming that building any new stadium would itself spur construction of office towers and hotels. Total output resulting from the presence of the teams in the city amounts to less than one tenth of one percent of the economic activity in New York City." ...

Consider the New York Yankees, who have the highest payroll in baseball and take in more than $300 million a year just from their television network. They'll move into a new $1 billion stadium next year, about half of which was covered by the taxpayers. Seats behind home plate that cost $250 this year will be ten times that next year. The net result is that very few of the people who paid for the stadium will be able to afford a seat there.