Economic benefits of downtown stadium overblown

The mayor of Macon-Bibb County, Robert Reichert, and his administration are proposing the construction of a new baseball stadium in downtown as an effort to facilitate economic growth in the city. County officials hope this economic growth will help revitalize Macon, increase tax revenue and bring more employment. Although the motivation for building this stadium is the assumption that it will help the economy, this is not guaranteed. Macon stands to lose more than it would gain. A new minor league stadium should not be built because it will be ineffective for economic growth, hurts the historic integrity of the city, and will cost taxpayers more money than it will bring in.

NO CORRELATION

Studies on the correlation between stadiums and economic growth have shown unsubstaintiated monetary growth across the cities examined. Oriole Park at Camden Yards Stadium, home to major league baseball team the Baltimore Orioles, is located in downtown Baltimore and despite the annual influx of visiting baseball fans, the stadium only contributes a 0.02 percent income boost to the city according to "Stadiums And Arenas: Economic Development Or Economic Redistribution?" by Dennis Coates.

Once the stadium is built, the distribution of revenue to the city depends on the percentage the team will keep. This financial detail cannot be examined in Macon because county officials have yet to find or even talk to a potential minor league team. Stadiums are built to attract people not only for the game but also for eating, drinking and entertainment.

STADIUM COULD HURT DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES

These facilities incorporate restaurants, snack stands, merchandise stands and even arcades. These accommodations will attract commerce away from businesses in downtown Macon because attendees can stay within the stadium grounds on game day to meet all of their food, drink and entertainment needs.

The study done by B&D Venues estimates the creation of roughly 500 temporary and permanent jobs, however, stadiums are not used frequently enough to provide consistent employment or a large economic growth to the host community according to Stanford's Hoover Institution's Clifton B. Parker's "Sports Stadiums Do Not Generate Significant Local Economic Growth." Stadiums attempt to make up for the lost revenue by hosting several other events while the team is off season, but the Macon Centreplex currently has facilities to host any events that the stadium would hope to attract.

DESTROYING HISTORIC INFRASTRUCTURE

Constructing a stadium means destroying part of Macon's current infrastructure, much of which is historic and dates back to 1802. Commissioners Gary Bechtel and Scotty Shepherd initially agreed to a comprehensive location study for areas in and around downtown Macon, however, B&D Venues only surveyed areas downtown according to The Telegraph. Three of the locations surveyed include historically significant sites. These three locations are the former Telegraph office on Broadway, the former Bibb Mill No. 1 location, and the current Luther Williams Field location.

The Bibb Mill No. 1 location dates back to 1876 and still has remaining infrastructure from the original mill. Luther Williams Field is a 4,000-seat baseball stadium that was built in 1929 and is the second-oldest minor league stadium in the country. Building the new stadium in one of these locations would destroy part of Macon's history. Rather than building over areas that are important to Macon's history, portions of public funding needed for the stadium could be better used to revitalize historic sites as well as other infrastructure in Macon. Luther Williams Field's capacity is only 1,000 less than the new proposed stadium. Updates to Luther Williams could provide a stadium to attract a new minor league baseball team. The addition of a new baseball stadium would not help the preservation of Macon's history nor solve the issue with dilapidated infrastructure downtown.

FINANCING CONSTRUCTION

The projected cost of building the stadium is $38 million, however this does not include the cost of buying the land, parking, off-site infrastructure, or costs associated with enticing a minor league team. Anywhere from 70 percent to 80 percent of the funding for this project is likely to come from the public. Although the $50,000 feasibility study was financed by the special purpose local option sales tax funds, county officials have not stated in detail how they plan to fund the stadium construction.

Other cities use tax bonds or share the costs of construction and land purchase with teams, but there is no perspective team for this stadium. The project is expected to be funded by bonds "based on the tax allocation district's expected revenue" when the Bibb Mill No. 1 location was considered in 2015. B&D Venues anticipates the stadium will generate approximately $171 million in economic activity over a 30-year period, though this is dependent on attendance at the games, cooperate sponsorship, and the monetary percentage that a team would keep according to the study.

FAILED ATTEMPTS

The Macon Braves, Macon Music, Macon Peaches and Macon Pinetoppers were baseball teams that either failed or relocated to other cities. Revenue from the stadium is contingent on Macon keeping a team, and thus far that has not been possible. The consequence of investing money from public funds will leave less money for other crucial city projects, and if the stadium fails to gain substantial revenue the funds cannot be immediately recovered.

The financial burden of constructing a new minor league stadium in Macon is far more damaging to the city budget and is not guaranteed to generate enough return to benefit Macon. Claims that sport stadiums generate economic growth are unfounded, destroying historic areas of Macon to construct the stadium compromises the historic integrity of the city, and the return profit for the stadium is not certain. Public funds do not need to be wasted on a new stadium construction with no definite revenue return to benefit the economy in Macon.

Raquel Warchol is a Mercer student and resident of Warner Robins.

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 9:58 PM with the headline "Economic benefits of downtown stadium overblown ."