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I was having round 1 of (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner with my father on Saturday night and we inevitably started talking about the Blue Jays.

As I write this post, the Blue Jays are down 2-0 in the ALDS, but by the time you read this email in your inbox (assuming you subscribe), game 3 will have already happened. Either the Jays will be on their way to a great comeback or the season will be over. I am remaining fiercely optimistic.

But in addition to the regular sports chatter, we also started talking about the possible economic benefits of the Blue Jays winning and being in the playoffs for the first time in decades. 

We assumed that 50,000 people buying tickets, heading downtown, and spending money on food, alcohol, parking, transit, taxis, and hotels, would be a great benefit to the local economy. And immediately I thought to myself: this would make a great blog post.

But it turns out that the local benefits of professional sports aren’t so clear cut.

There’s been a lot of research on public funding for sports stadiums and a lot of the research suggests that it may not be in the best interest of taxpayers. A considerable amount of the spending does not get retained by the local economy and instead gets siphoned off to the respective league and to concentrated private interests.

https://500px.com/embed.js

I was having round 1 of (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner with my father on Saturday night and we inevitably started talking about the Blue Jays.

As I write this post, the Blue Jays are down 2-0 in the ALDS, but by the time you read this email in your inbox (assuming you subscribe), game 3 will have already happened. Either the Jays will be on their way to a great comeback or the season will be over. I am remaining fiercely optimistic.

But in addition to the regular sports chatter, we also started talking about the possible economic benefits of the Blue Jays winning and being in the playoffs for the first time in decades. 

We assumed that 50,000 people buying tickets, heading downtown, and spending money on food, alcohol, parking, transit, taxis, and hotels, would be a great benefit to the local economy. And immediately I thought to myself: this would make a great blog post.

But it turns out that the local benefits of professional sports aren’t so clear cut.

There’s been a lot of research on public funding for sports stadiums and a lot of the research suggests that it may not be in the best interest of taxpayers. A considerable amount of the spending does not get retained by the local economy and instead gets siphoned off to the respective league and to concentrated private interests.