Public funding for sports venues tends to be pretty controversial. With all the worthy causes local governments are expected to support -- libraries, parks, police departments, etc. -- any effort to give public money to a new sports stadium tends to attract both criticism from detractors and enthusiasm from supporters.
Recently, the owner of the Orlando City Lions "all but promised" that Orlando is in line for Major League Soccer franchise, but only if it gets a new stadium. The current plan is for a $96.5 million stadium that would be partially funded by Orange County and the city of Orlando.
Now, there are myriad ways to approach an issue like this. But let's consider it from a business perspective.
The franchise would inject $1.2 billion into our local economy over the next 30 years, according to one study. That's a large sum, and one traditional view of economics holds that a rising tide lifts all boats, so to speak. It is also true that soccer enthusiasts would end up supporting bars, merchandise vendors and other small businesses related to the soccer franchise.
But then again, bars and memorabilia vendors are not the same as, say, a technology startup. They typically do not teach Orlando residents new and valuable job skills and they simply don't pay as much. It is not unreasonable to argue that whatever money Orlando and Orange County would be contributing toward the stadium could be better spent on economic development measures, like training for entrepreneurs, microlending or educational seminars for the owners of startup companies.
What are your thoughts? Regardless of whether you are a soccer fan, do you think supporting a major sports franchise like an MLS soccer team would be a good use of public money from a business perspective, or are there better uses for those funds?
Source: Orlando Sentinel, "Major League Soccer would have $1.2B impact on region, study says," Mark Schlueb, Oct. 9, 2012
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