Using a panel of Major League Baseball team attendance data for the period 1950 to 2003, the authors determined that after controlling for team quality and other factors, a new modern era ballpark adds 22 to 30 percent to total attendance over a 10-year period and, on average, generated present-value stadium revenues of $272 million for the franchise. Since the construction costs for the group of 14 modern ballparks averaged $99 million in private money and $198 million in public funds, there were two results with important implications for public finance. First, the revenue estimates were...Read more
