Texas hypocrites spend $31 mil in tax money on SB while trying to cut teachers

I would agree with this. I would also say that no way on God's Fake Green Earth will the city of Arlington realize a benefit to match the $325 million they gave Jerrah.

 

That's a good point, that is a lot of scracth

 

Study after study has shown that to be true. Cities don't get an ROI on stadium costs. At least, measurable in terms of dollars. The question is whether the civic pride in being the home to <insert team name> is worth the expense.

 

Comrade, we are halfway there. Once we socialize the profits... as well as the losses... the revolution will have won.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in a lot of cases aren't most of the public dollars associated with building new stadiums spent on infrastructure around it? Roads leading to and from it, sewer lines, parking lots, things like that?
You often hear the city paid $300 million of a $500 million stadium, but I wonder how much of that goes to the building itself.

 

Oh, but for that $31M, the NFL gave back. A bunch of trees and a $2M Salvation Army center in Arlington. Now that's tax dollars that pay.

 

Better than what Walmart gives back, especially in Texas.

 

It's probably still bringing money. Drove by the stadium last night and it is packed with temporary buildings that still need to be taken down. Someone is getting paid to do all the breakdown work.

 

I sure wish the Patriots would have put some of that infrastructure money into Route 1. Its still a nightmare getting out of there.

 

I'm not sure about the amount/source of infrastructure funds, but that $325M from Arlington was for the stadium itself. The city raised its sales tax by one-half percent (keep in mind that in Texas food and many other items do not incur sales tax) and began to tax stadium parking and admissions*. Based on these anticipated revenues, the city issued tax revenue bonds, the sale of which was used to help fund stadium construction. It's largely the same kind of deal Arlington did for the Ballpark just down the road. Even with the recession, it's likely that the city will pay off these bonds early, because they were set up with very cautious estimates. Also, yes, the city has had some significant economic benefit. Last year, in the stadium's first year, Arlington's sales tax revenues were actually up (from the previous year) when much of the rest of the region had shrinking revenues. Further, the stadium is beginning to serve as a linchpin for additional economic development. A good bit of money is now pouring in to develop along a southwest line from the stadium toward UT-Arlington, a 33,000-student institution about two miles or so away. I would anticipate that, when all is said and done, the quantifiable side of this deal will be largely a break-even kind of deal. There will certainly be other benefits (and drawbacks) but they won't be so easy to quantify.

Now, please don't think I am advocating for the stadium deal. I am philosophically opposed to these sorts of things, and it is typically the case that these things are oversold economically. I am an Arlington resident, though, and I wanted to make sure the story y'all have is reasonably complete.

*The city's also supposed to get a big chunk of any stadium naming rights deal, but to date Jerrah's not having much luck finding a sponsor.

 

The State College/Pullman of the NFL

 

The city is supposed to get 5 percent of naming rights, as I recall. And the revenue from the taxes on parking and admissions go straight into Jerry's pocket, not to the city. And I am certain Arlington paid for infrastructure improvements around the stadium in addition to the stadium money.

Further, with all the money spent in the area during the Super Bowl frenzy, how much was spent in Arlington? Twenty percent? Ten? If you think about it, most of the big events (other the game itself, of course) and places to stay were in other cities. The NFL Experience was in Dallas, the ESPN stuff n Fort Worth. None of the headquarters hotels (NFL, media, teams) were in Arlington as I recall. So how much money did Arlington really take in? On the flip side, how much did Dallas and Fort Worth take in without spending a dime on the stadium (obviously, they put up some of that $31 million, I would think)?