Sports infrastructures and public funding?

[jimmy olsen]

Besides, baseball is about the worst of the major sports franchise out there.  Wages are totally out of control, teams keep shuffling to where public funds are, and thanks to Jeffrey Loria, baseball popularity sank to a new low in the last years of the Expos.  I seriously doubt it can be revived enough to fill a 60 000 places stadium.

Most baseball stadiums today only usually have like 45,000 people.

[viper37]

I don't like it, but it's the way things are these days. 

what you mean is that your Republican principles will go away to fund something you happen to like?

Not really.  It's just something cities or counties have to do in order to stay competitive these days.

So. any subsidy to any corporate entity for wich goal, as determined by a political party, is to increase the competitivity of the city or county is legitimate in your eyes?

Isn't that dangerously close to socialism?

If your government tells you health care insurance is a necessity to be competitive with the rest of the world, will you buy it?

[dps]

So you want them to do a cost/benefit, and for the benefit they put in however much they want. 

I'm not a civil servant. I have no idea how important they think it is. They would have ways of justifying a number however.

The cost part is relatively easy (though a lot of government-funded projects end up running over budget), but the benefits really can only be calculated accurately in retrospect--beforehand, the financial benefits are basically a matter of the assumptions of whoever is doing the analaysis.  At best, it's a guess;  at worst, it's a reflection of someone's biases.

[The Minsky Moment]

Neil, Yi:

Neil's question is to the point.  Yes - competing leagues can be formed, but that is an enormous entry commitment because the new league most start off the bat with multiple franchises in multiple cities all offerring competitive talent.  In the present economic environment for sports it is probably an impossibility.   Note that no effort to form a competing league in major US sports has even got off the planning stage since the early 1980s.

What might be possible would be to form a new team in single city and then seek schedule games with regional rivals, even if on a exhibition basis.  But league rules prohibit that and the antitrust exemption prevents challenge under the Sherman Act as a restraint of trade.

[The Brain]

America is incredibly Socialist about sports.

[Admiral Yi]

What might be possible would be to form a new team in single city and then seek schedule games with regional rivals, even if on a exhibition basis.  But league rules prohibit that and the antitrust exemption prevents challenge under the Sherman Act as a restraint of trade.

This doesn't sound like a stupendous advantage.

[derspiess]

So. any subsidy to any corporate entity for wich goal, as determined by a political party, is to increase the competitivity of the city or county is legitimate in your eyes?

No.

Isn't that dangerously close to socialism?

Not really.  Crony capitalism, maybe

If your government tells you health care insurance is a necessity to be competitive with the rest of the world, will you buy it?

No.

[Razgovory]

It's only socialism if it goes to people that you don't like.

[viper37]

So. any subsidy to any corporate entity for wich goal, as determined by a political party, is to increase the competitivity of the city or county is legitimate in your eyes?

No.

Isn't that dangerously close to socialism?

Not really.  Crony capitalism, maybe

If your government tells you health care insurance is a necessity to be competitive with the rest of the world, will you buy it?

No.

Then it's only about sports.  If it's really about the economic value of the project, anything could be financed.

[The Minsky Moment]

What might be possible would be to form a new team in single city and then seek schedule games with regional rivals, even if on a exhibition basis.  But league rules prohibit that and the antitrust exemption prevents challenge under the Sherman Act as a restraint of trade.

This doesn't sound like a stupendous advantage.

It's enormous. 
The ability to use contract to control league scheduling it what makes exclusive leagues possible.
If you look at the early history of baseball, the creation and strict enforcement of contractual scheduling rules by the centralized league authority is what made the initial major league monopoly possible.

[derspiess]

Then it's only about sports.

Well yeah, professional sports is sort of a special case for me. 

If it's really about the economic value of the project, anything could be financed.

I wasn't just talking about economics.  It's a part of the equation.  But for me having professional sports teams make a city more livable.

[DGuller]

What might be possible would be to form a new team in single city and then seek schedule games with regional rivals, even if on a exhibition basis.  But league rules prohibit that and the antitrust exemption prevents challenge under the Sherman Act as a restraint of trade.

This doesn't sound like a stupendous advantage.

That sounds like a humongous advantage, and I don't know anything about baseball.  There is a network effect in play here:  the value of the team is non-existent unless it has someone credible to play with.

[Admiral Yi]

It's enormous. 
The ability to use contract to control league scheduling it what makes exclusive leagues possible.
If you look at the early history of baseball, the creation and strict enforcement of contractual scheduling rules by the centralized league authority is what made the initial major league monopoly possible.

I guess I just don't see the huge profits to be gained by defecting from the cartel and scheduling a game against the Birmingham Stallions.  Who would want to watch that?

[grumbler]

I guess I just don't see the huge profits to be gained by defecting from the cartel and scheduling a game against the Birmingham Stallions.  Who would want to watch that?

According to some, like author John U. Bacon, college football players are worth millions to their schools. Hire a team of them, and make the millions for yourself.