Robert A. Baade

The quest for the cup: assessing the economic impact of the World Cup.

Baade R. A. and Matheson V. A. (2004) The quest for the cup: assessing the economic impact of the World Cup, Reg. Studies 38, 343–354. Hosting the World Cup, the world’s second largest sporting event, is a potentially expensive affair. The co-hosts of the 2002 games, Japan and South Korea, spent a combined US

An Analysis of Major League Baseball Attendance, 1969 - 1987

4 billion building new facilities or refurbishing old facilities in preparation for the event. An ex post analysis of the 1994 World Cup held in the US suggests that the economic impact of the event cannot justify this magnitude of expenditures and that host cities experienced cumulative losses of

What Determines Alumni Generosity

5·5 to

Home Run or Wild Pitch?: Assessing the Economic Impact of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game

9·3 billion as opposed to ex ante estimates of a

Sports Stadiums and Area Development: A Critical Review

4 billion gain touted by event boosters. Potential hosts should consider with care whether the award of the World Cup is an honour or a burden.

An Analysis of the Economic Rationale for Public Subsidization of Sports Stadiums

A myriad of issues relating to professional sports require knowledge about the determinants of attendance. As sports expand as a cultural phenomenon, legal battles over franchises, player compensation and rights, and public subsidies for sports stadiums will intensify. While attendance at sporting events plays a crucial role in deciding sports controversies such as these, there is a paucity of theory explaining attendance at professional sporting events. Even though baseball is considered the national pastime, relatively little is known about the determinants of baseball attendance. This paper is an attempt to fill that gap through building on the baseball attendance research of Roger Noll.

Padding Required: Assessing the Economic Impact of the Super Bowl

Abstract Alumni giving is correlated with institutional characteristics, such as quality and development efforts, and student characteristics, such as quality and wealth. Empirical analysis is complicated by the expected correlation between institutional quality and student wealth, and the possible endogeneity between institutional expenditures on education (one common measure of quality) and the level of alumni support the institution receives. This paper uses a two-stage least squares approach with data on quality and variables correlated with student wealth to address these issues. Quality variables are found to have a positive impact on the average alumni gift, with that impact most significant for private universities and liberal arts colleges. Wealth variables also have a positive impact on the average gift, with the estimated coefficients most significant for public universities. Development effort is very important in determining the level of giving for all three types of institutions.

Assessing the Economic Impact of College Football Games on Local Economies

Major League Baseball has rewarded cities that build new baseball stadiums with the chance to host the All-Star Game. Although the league asserts a significant boost to metropolitan economies due to the game, are these economic impact estimates published by the league credible? In two separate economic impact models, the authors find that All-Star Games since 1973 are actually associated with worse than expected economic performance in host cities.

Race and Riots: A Note on the Economic Impact of the Rodney King Riots

Should local governments subsidize the construction and operation of sports stadiums? This is being debated in cities throughout North America, and several factors have conspired to elevate this issue to headline status. Local government officials, burdened by the deteriorating financial health of their cities, have sought ways to mollify critics. Since some political strategists have argued that the presence of professional sports imparts economic prosperity, some local political leaders have hitched their wagons to the sports star. But is professional sports a panacea for sagging urban economic fortunes? Many are skeptical that subsidizing sports stadiums is worth the costs. We examine published and unpublished literature as well as our own research to chronicle, analyze, and critique the use of publicly financed sports stadiums as a vehicle for economic progress. We provide information for both the academic and the practitioner on the types of questions that should be posed when making decisions about stadiums. In the first section we detail and analyze the recent history and future plans for city financial involvement in sports stadium projects. We discuss the costs and benefits of stadium-based development rationale in the second section, and the next section analyzes its validity. Factors that may prove decisive in determining the economic successfulness of an individual stadium project are observed in the fourth section, and the last section concludes the article.

'Death effect' on collectible prices

Proposals to provide public subsidy to sports stadiums are being debated in many locales. This paper examines a number of types of benefits asserted by proponents of subsidies: direct municipal revenues from stadium events; multiplier benefits increasing income and sales in the area; the attraction of unrelated business activity; and, intangible benefits. The business attraction argument is subjected to empirical test with regression analysis. In only a small fraction of the cases examined does manufacturing activity in an SMSA correlate significantly with the presence of a new or renovated stadium. We conclude that measurable economic benefits to area residents are not large enough to justify stadium subsidies and that the debate must turn to immeasurable intangible benefits like fan identification and civic pride.