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March 24, 2008
DON'T DO IT!
Megan is offended that NY City and State is putting up $220 million towards the Yankees' new stadium. So much so that she declares:
I'm feeling more affection for the Nationals by the minute.
I understand Megan's aversion to spending public money on sports stadiums (especially as most studies find that municipalities don't get much economic bang for the public buck), but this is almost as short-sighted and impractical as....voting for Ron Paul or something. First, the Nationals are themselves one of the worst offenders in recent years when it comes to extorting public money for their stadium - a city council revolt led DC to cap their outlays at "only" $611 million for the Nationals' new stadium. And it's not as if DC is that much more flush, or has fewer social problems, than NYC.
For better or worse, most new stadiums built over the past 20 years or so have been built whollly or mostly with public money (though the trend has been decreasing in recent years). By (very, very low) relative standards, New York has gotten off relatively easily with the new stadiums for the Yankees and Mets - neither project would crack any top-10 list of municipal stadium boondoggles.
And while the Nationals are on the way up, I still expect that New York will earn a better return on its investment than DC - at least on the field.
Posted by Dr. Manhattan at 10:50 AM | Permalink