Texas ISDs must itemize ballot measures for sports facility debt. TX ptax debt burden for ISD sports has increased ~x3 since 2006. Do voters behave the same towards pro facilities as high school facilities even tho debt tax security is diff? Here's Spurs vote vs NEISD facility votes. Generally, yes.

Since 1980 among passing sports referenda: -9th smallest margin of victory (4.2%, mean = 19.5%) -4th smallest turnout (19%, mean = 41%) -no stat diff btwn strong and weak R precincts -wealth diffs drove the margin. Precincts above med home value supported on avg 52% compared to those below at 47%.

Every time I read something about the Bears' continued effort to get more taxpayer money (and frankly of every NFL team threatening to go somewhere), it reminds me of this 1995 gem from long-time Chicago writer Bernie Lincicome. www.thestadiumbusiness.com/2025/11/03/c...

Worth pointing out that the Texas legislature killed HB19 in the spring which would have made it very hard to issue non-voter approved debt for sports facilities. Seems relevant considering city and county taxpayers' increasing debt burdens in SA/Bexar. sanantonioreport.org/decoding-spu...

Sharon Kioko (U of Wash) presented a study of yield diffs btwn GO and rev bonds by sector. Lawmakers use rev bonds for stadiums even though they are more expensive than GO. Why are they more expensive? They don’t generate enough revenue consistently. Why do lawmakers use them? To avoid voters.

I cannot recall the last time a major local paper pushed this hard to convince readers to support subsidies. We’re at like, what, one op ed a week rate to convince folks to make tax decisions with their heart rather head from the Express editorial board? www.expressnews.com/opinion/edit...

What counts as ‘“often” is a judgment call, but the author’s point is correct: a failed referendum rarely means a team leaves. A great unanswered question is whether deals after a failed vote are more lucrative to the team than had the referendum passed. www.sacurrent.com/news/san-ant...

Stop using Oakland to justify subsidies. Apparently if the Spurs don't get an arena, San Antonio will turn into Oakland?? So stupid. If San Antonio or any city can't manage their pensions, then yeah, it might turn into Oakland. But not bc of lack of pro sports. www.expressnews.com/opinion/comm...

Fielded a few Qs about sports subsidy referenda and turnout. More turnout correlates with lower probability of success. Holding vote in Nov of pres election yrs has higher prob of success. Both not stat diff from zero though. Predicted approval rating in the graph based on n=85 since 1980.

We are pleased to announce that Aiden Powell from West Virginia University is this year’s recipient of NAASE’s Graduate Student Paper Award for his paper “Professional Sporting Events and Emergency Medical Service Response Times: Evidence from New York City.” (1/3)

Just a friendly reminder that any researchers with working papers in the public finance and sports space should reach out to me. I've got a standing offer for a special issue and would love to take the editor up on it. Papers don't have to be US-centric but lessons for policy in US is needed.

Yes, Spurs ticket prices will increase. Historical arena mean yoy chg is 14% in real terms. If pricing this year is near resale, and if arena opened this year, it'd be ~$35 mean price increase. Ticket taxes don't explain the increase, as its historically about 3%. news4sanantonio.com/news/local/f...

Figured I'd poke at the Arlington Heights consultant report. 5400+ FTE at full build out. They propose 613k sqft of hotel+retail+office, or a min 8.8 workers/1k sqft. CBECS survey, tho, reports aggregate mean for these uses is 3 workers/1k sqft. So, yeah, 8.8 seems a pretty aggressive assumption.

Deceptive headline from a Post editor suggesting Denver's proposed NWSL stadium is causing new housing development. The author points out (and city permits corroborate) this building has been in development for 9 years. The stadium was only approved this year. www.denverpost.com/2025/09/25/d...

A San Antonio journalist told me today that the mayor has started receiving police protection because of threats against her and her family for her attempts to slow the project and allow for more policy evaluation. Anyone know if the Spurs or NBA have issued a statement on this?

Dennis (@dcoatesecon.bsky.social) and Brad (@bradhumphreys.bsky.social) deserve tremendous credit for elevating the rigor of research into sports economics questions and fostering a vibrant research community.

I don't know which I laughed at harder: DC council giving more thoughtfulness to an amendment to give a CBA citizen group spending authority than it did to giving $6b+ to Harris, or Frumin saying "I said I'd vote 'no' if I didn't get what I wanted. Well, I didn't, but f it, I'll vote 'yes' anyway."

This is a false but common interpretation of most states' post-Kelo ED laws. In CO, the Broncos can use ED through a metro district which it controls fully. Courts only need to see that lawmakers believed a project has some public benefit. www.denverpost.com/2025/09/17/d...

This statement is false, and it repeats the falsehood in the cited article. It also trades on ambiguity of the meaning of private. If you limit to strictly private debt for brick and mortar at time of construction, hard rock stad, fedex field, BoA stad also count. www.independent.org/article/2025...

What the f is going on in public finance related journalism? I refuse to believe any “journalist” is this stupid. Econ dev official says tax incentives don’t take money from the govt. Literally that’s what any tax break is.

It's true; I said it. It's also true that I didn't think they'd use that sound bite. I don't recall saying it with the level of enthusiasm that would warrant an exclamation mark. It's tough being a sports policy wonk when there's nothing to be wonky about (yet). denver.citycast.fm/explainers/w...

Lawmakers are a little too excited for the magnitude of residential and commercial gentrification that's gonna happen. I mean, lawmaking is about picking winners and losers, but at least try to temper your enthusiasm to displace people and businesses. www.denverpost.com/2025/09/09/b...

Apparently Broncos will make their Burnham Yards stadium announcement official today. Apparently they'll also be paying for the stadium themselves. Hahaha.

Meta's Economic Development Subsidies Lead: "Our data centers, they're the backbone of everything that Meta ultimately does." Exactly why companies should get NO public money for building them. Meta instead should pay the communities where it locates. www.kshb.com/news/local-n...

Astros ptax situation has lots of unanswered questions. But it got at least one reporter interested in my other policy world: ptax admin. Never trust roll values for exempt prop. Here are FMVs of 3 facilities when exemption turns on/off. Exempt values are on autopilot. www.chron.com/sports/astro...

Garbage selective reporting. Seattle would have had the Sac Kings 6 yrs after Sonics left if the NBA approved the sale to Hansen. His deal was generous to taxpayers by today standards. Giants and Blue Jackets lost 5 votes each and ended up building on their own. www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/n...

Spurs MOU commits city/co to $1.1b ds pv. So far only $151m pv comes from Spurs (rent+cba). Sure, team is building stuff, but they'll control land use for their own profit and ptaxes earmarked for their interests. With a competitive RFP, city could do way better. sanantonioreport.org/city-council...

As a researcher I'm excited for another sports facility vote. The city should have one too. The hotel tax IS a tax on residents. City+county officials think raising hotel tax rates will attract more visitors. Nothing says "Visit San Antonio" like a 17% hotel tax. www.ksat.com/news/local/2...

Another reminder that even good journalists may be poor at reporting on sports facility and public policy matters. This was a missed opportunity to offer better information. contrarian.substack.com/p/offsides-w...

Chairman Mendelson just said he doesn't think gentrification pressures will happen immediately; it'll only happen after the stadium is completed 5 years in the future. He has no idea about the real estate and sports facility research. Speculators start speculating as soon as a project is green lit.

Teams use the same excuse repeatedly about financial confidentiality, and the only reason why this excuse works is because most lawmakers are pushovers or have been bought off. All subsidies in the name of econ dev should require public disclosure of GAAP compliant financials.

I have a yacht to sell my local government. It's regular price is $1b, but I'll sell it for $250m. If you are the type of person that wants to buy the yacht because of the 75% discount rather than asking if there are better uses of $250m, you might be a sports facility subsidy supporter.

New working paper with @sszy.bsky.social. If you are looking for a break from Commanders shenanigans, I can offer Chargers shenanigans. In the mid 1990s, San Diego offered to buy unsold Chargers tickets with no price cap. How much do you think ticket prices increased? papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Most outlets are misleading residents: the spurs’s proposed cost split is for construction only, not operations or maintenance. It’s going to cost taxpayers way more than this once interest and the other two are included. foxsanantonio.com/sports/who-p...

Mendelson agrees to give billions in rent discounts and to make ~20 acres of public land inaccessible for 90 years. The best he can do is $50m in a CBA? This is not the flex Mendelson thinks it is. Philly got Harris to agree to $60m and they were only giving a couple hundred million in breaks.

Once the city issues debt, it’s obligated to pay for it on pain of higher future borrowing costs. Whether the city pays the debt with a TIF-backed fund or GF apps is irrelevant. Shuffling $ around doesn’t change taxpayer costs. This isnt an improvement. chairmanmendelson.com/2025/07/24/c...

Team owners enjoy duping folks. A common ex is how teams score the value of CBA items. When they give tickets away in CBAs, they tend to give away tickets to seats for match ups less likely to sell. The value of the tickets to the team is closer to zero than face. www.expressnews.com/news/article...

New Wolves owners are saying the right things to prepare for a major taxpayer handout on a new arena. They are setting up the common "we're losing money", "we're an anchor", and "we need a new arena to be competitive" justifications. www.twincities.com/2025/07/11/a...

First mover advantage. Be the first to give a list of demands, set the bar high, negotiate down on inexpensive wants to give politicians "wins", Bob's your uncle. Looking forward to someone releasing or leaking the term sheet. www.kansascity.com/news/politic...

Ohio went from a piecemeal facility subsidy design to a statewide as-of-right subsidy design. It now has an ATM for facilities unless a future legislature or court reverses it. So, yes, the Blue Jackets will get current+future generations of taxpayer $ too. Again. www.dispatch.com/story/news/p...

Some journalists appear confused about subsidies again. If you want to distinguish direct from indirect subsidies, fine, but if you are for one and not the other, you are still for subsidies. And tax exemptions are always subsidies. It’s misleading to frame otherwise. www.axios.com/local/twin-c...

Still seeing stories on Browns stadium $ but still no journalist is talking about how the OH leg/gov passed a law where the state forces a transfer of private ownership to public ownership without compensation. I thought in an R state socialism and govt takings were bad.

Brown's stadium $ isn't just for Browns. Unclaimed funds can be borrowed against for pro/minor stadiums/arena, motorsports complex, and all infrastructure for such facilities anywhere in the state. New law also says any $ allocated to facilities can't be clawed back if a successful claim is made.

The next front in the stadium mess: Minneapolis. Again. Fun fact: Like COA in DC, Moda in Portland, Nationwide in Columbus, Target Center was privately built and operated until the govt bought it. It was hemorrhaging private money. Now it hemorrhages taxpayer money. kstp.com/kstp-news/to...

Seems like the SanAnts asst city mang believes the Spurs arena will be fully taxable. At worst they lied; at best they misspoke. The ptax exp will be in the $300-$450m range (nom) over 30yrs with the ISD losing out on 45%, SanAnts city on 21%, and the county and hospital district each on 11%.

Kansas STAR bond deadline not really a deadline? Really? Man, I wish someone would have been alerting journalists to the fact that lawmakers and team owners use "deadlines" to create false senses of urgency . www.kmbc.com/article/kans...

Here's the 2025 pro sports facility lawmaker scorecard by political party through June 2025. Shaping up to be an expensive year for taxpayers. Teams have so far secured $3.6 billion (nom) in state+local taxpayer support with 70% lawmaker support overall.

Priorities.

SA news station says they “dig” in lot proposed bond package but doesn’t do anything to challenge mayor’s misleading wordplay that taxpayers won’t be on the hook. It’s simple: if govt is involved, then taxpayers are on the hook. It’s only a question of how mcuh. news4sanantonio.com/news/investi...

Suppose I attend a conference in Denver, get a hotel room, and eat a Subway. Acc to CSL, the Subway gets to count my conf fees, room fees/taxes as econ imp. And so can the conf and the hotel. So now all my spending gets counted x3. Please stop being terrible at thinking ourrfk.dc.gov/sites/defaul...