Economics of the All-Star Game vs. KC

Alternate title: "Why Bud Selig is an ass."

''Usually these games are awarded to teams with new stadiums so they can show them off,'' said a local businessman who works extensively with sports franchises and leagues (Graphics.boston.com, 1999).

Bear with me as I divulge some: "Get ready for a baseball All-Star Game" in Kansas City as voters said yes to "$575 million stadium renovations [as] the first priority, locking the Chiefs and Royals into Kansas City for years to come" (kansascity.com, 14265700). Now, I won't complain as to the logic of needing to renovate the stadiums so that they did not default and move, though both owners (Hunt and Glass) stated they would always find an alternative to that solution. I could complain about the lack of foresight by Glass as to the revitalization of Downtown KC, but I guess he wouldn't know that Downtown is shambles since oddly enough, Arkansas looks nothing like Downtown KC. This is a debate for another time... either way, I find two issues with the renovations and Bud Selig's unspoken policy.

First of all: "On the sports facility side, numerous researchers have examined the relationship between building new facilities and economic growth in metropolitan areas. In every case, independent work on the economic impact of stadiums and arenas has uniformly found that there is no statistically significant positive correlation between sports facility construction and economic development. This stands in stark contrast to the claims of sports teams and leagues who assert that the large economic benefits of professional franchises merit considerable public expenditures on stadiums and arenas," economic advantages such as having an All-Star game "attaches a $75 million benefit to the [host city] (thesportsjournal.com, Vol5-No1). Obviously, this isn't a steady number, for instance, Detroit said they estimated 50 million in revenue generation, while Pittsburgh estimated 62-65 million.

Google any Pittsburgh newspaper, though (Pittsburgh, All-Star Game, Economics), and you'll find that in preparation for this event, they repaved roads, repaired roads, cleaned up the city, etc., but none of these papers accounted for how much money was used to prepare for the game. An All-Star game in KC would have been assured with Downtown baseball, but is probably a truth with renovated Kauffman, but looking at the numbers, splitting 500 million b/t 2 stadiums amounts to (just averaging b/t 2) 250 million in taxes for KC. 60-75 million in revenue generation seems a bit small. Also, much of the revenue is actually converged into a single event, rather than multiple ones, which is usually what happens... " studies often ignore the substitution effect. To the extent that attendees at a sporting event spend their money on that event instead of on other activities in the local economy, the sporting event simply results in a reallocation of expenditures in the economy rather than a real net increase in economic activity" (thesportingjournal.com, Vol5-No1). Following this reasoning, this revenue doesn't create new revenue opportunities, but rather, funnels it into one day and one event. maybe this is a good thing, you generate that much revenue in one day, and then continue to generate revenue elsewhere as the city normally would, but this isn't what Selig and crew represent, they make it look like PURE profit in one event, when we can see, to get the event we had to spend over 200 million on stadium renovation (I'm not ignoring we had to do something, since the teams may have moved).

The second thing that bothers me is that even with Glass and his BUTTY Selig, we still couldn't get the all star game. They are best buds and Glass still couldn't convince Selig to send an All-Star game here. maybe he hates KC or maybe his policy to show off new stadiums is STUPID. Clearly, Selig likes to ignore the past. He's all about the future... i'm like this to, in every aspect but BASEBALL. IF the past wasn't important, we wouldn't keep records... barry bonds approaching the all time homer record WOULDN'T MATTER (probably doesn't anyway... STEROIDS!!).... integrating blacks, latinos, asians into the game's representation in the 1900s wouldn't matter and today we'd have all white, all slow baseball. doesn't sound like fun, so why not harken back to the old days and show some older stadiums... read some Boston Globe articles and you'll see the Red Sox only got it a few years ago b/c Milwaukee's stadium in 1999 wasn't ready (graphics.boston.com, 1999).

To me, the point is the purpose. THE PURPOSE! The purpose of the approved tax in Jackson County should have been keeping the Royals, Chiefs, and updating facilities (minus the idiocy of not approving DOWNTOWN BASEBALL!). Sadly, the KCSTAR and other local papers were more excited by the fact that we could get an All-Star game. In fact, weeks before the vote, Selig and Tagliabue both stated that KC would get the All-Star game and Superbowl if we approved stadium renovation. It became the focus of the owners, fans, and sportswriters to get the vote approved for this purpose. We lost focus that we would be able to keep 2 very important entertainment centers to KC. IF we lost these teams, I probably wouldn't dream of raising my family there. I'd move to St. Louis (who I HATE!) so that my children and I could view SPORTS!

So back to the purpose, was the purpose to spend all of this money to keep our teams here? Or was the purpose to attract Selig and Tagliabue? Do we, as Kansas Citians, want to show where we REALLY play... or some facimile that was finished days before the big games?

I would have voted no. No to stadium renovations and no to Bud Selig, the Willy Wonka of Baseball's Future. The man who has crazy concoctions of ideas (see All-Star Game Blunders Post, the Wild Card Teams, "Steroids and 'Why I put my head into the Sand'" by Butt Selig, etc.) and will eventually leave some factory and midgets, who can't properly dye their hair and stain their skin orange, to some crazy kid who doesn't understand how to run the league.


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/14265700.htm

http://graphics.boston.com/allstar99/news/08_grandslam.htm

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/baseball/mlb/kansas_city_royals/15009607.htm

http://www.thesportjournal.org/2002Journal/Vol5-No1/studies.htm