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SPORTS ECONOMICS – FINANCING A STADIUM

 

Prologue: The emerging scenario is very clear. Sports events have become big business. Today the revenue generation from gate ticket pricing is in a miniscule proportion.  

The major areas of income generation are (a) Television rights, (b) Radio broadcasting rights, (c) Sponsorship of individual players and franchises by corporate business houses in order to promote their branded products. Once there was sportsperson personal loyalties and team loyalties. Today loyalties have shifted gear towards financial maximization. Decisions are made by teams and players on the basis of how much they get and not how loyal they are. Salaries of players have gone up by leaps and bounds. Players attract salaries from $600,000 to $8,000,000 per annum. 

Resource Generation – Options: There used to be a time when stadiums were built by the state as part of public works projects. Today, private funding of stadiums is increasingly taking place. Team owners eagerly come forward to contribute their might towards the cost of construction of stadiums. Let us see some new stadiums built during the decade 1990’s.  

No

Stadium

Team

Capacity

Cost $ millions

% Of Public Finance

Year Opened

1

Oriole Park – Camden Yards

Baltimore Orioles

48,000

228

96%

1992

2

Georgia Dome

Atlanta Falcons

71,594

232

100%

1992

3

Transworld Dome

St. Louis Rams

65,300

299

96%

1995

4

Erickson Stadium

Carolina Panthers

72,350

248

20%

1996

5

Bank One Ball Park

Arizona Diamond Backs

48,500

338

75%

1998

6

Core States Spectrum

Philadelphia 76ers

21,000

206

0%

1996

 

If a decision has been made to use tax payers money for a stadium, finance generation is possible through: (a) Government backed bonds (b) Excise duties (c) Personal seat licenses (d) State lotteries (e) Tourism taxes (f) Sales taxes (g) Ticket surcharges (h) General fund revenues, and, (i) Lodging taxes. 

The local population would love to shift the incidence of taxation to the shoulders of tourists, if the required revenue is generated through tourism tax, and, or, hotel surcharge.

 

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