Like many teams in the NBA and other American professional sports, the Sacramento Kings are advocating for a new arena to be built in their hometown — with the lingering threat that if this doesn’t happen, the team may be “forced” to move elsewhere.
As I’ve discussed before, the economics of new stadiums basically math out to highway robbery of the public by some of the wealthiest men in the country. The article above turns that statement into an exclamation. It covers a study done by a Sacramento consulting firm (at no cost to the city) that demonstrates that building a new $500M arena would result in a grand total of 229 new permanent jobs for the city, the majority of which (I’m guessing) would be low-level customer service and operations posts like working at vending stands, the team shop, ushering, etc. Not exactly the type of jobs that are going to position Sacramento as a hub of future growth and opportunity in a shifting global market.
Traditionally, the creation of a huge tide of new jobs is one of the primary arguments that franchise owners make for why they shouldn’t have to bear the burden of paying for their own new stadium. As the article makes plain, it’s a completely bogus argument. Good to see that someone telling the truth about it is getting a little pub. (Thanks to ESPN’s John Hollinger for tweeting the link.)
-T.
