The Sports Stadium as a Municipal Investment.

• Author: Wenderski, John

Reviewed by John Wenderski, chief financial officer, City of Atlanta, Georgia.

Since professional sports took hold in America, the idea of the "home team" has been a strong one. Professional sports have been part of the American fabric for nearly 150 years, and the attachment of the fans to the home team has been an integral part of the support and success of professional sports teams.

As sports have grown, so has the love affair the American public has with their teams. Nearly everyone can talk about their home team, whether it is the little league team that has done well or the professional sports team that has seen glory in the past and will surely do so again in the future. Nowhere does this talk seem to take on the importance or recognize the real costs of having a home team as it does in the communities where the professional teams actually play their games.

The home team is almost always valued, but it is not always supported financially by the communities; thus, teams come and teams go. Until the 1950s, the overriding reason a team moved was it was not good enough, did not generate the necessary fan support, or did not have an owner who could or would finance the difference between the cost of operations and the revenues the team generated. In the 1950s professional sports found a new financial partner that promised to help eliminate, or at a minimum significantly reduce, the fixed costs of running a professional sports team.

This new and often willing partner was the local government where the home team was located, and the investment became the stadium, arena, or dome where the team played. During the past 40 years, television, marketing, and expanding leisure time available to the American public have come together to make professional sport franchises one of the most lucrative investments an owner can make. In turn, a successful, high profile business was just the ticket for communities to buy in their efforts to maintain their notoriety, continue economic development efforts, or revitalize large areas of the urban landscape. However these communities justified their participation, it only came with the support of the citizens. Government finance professionals often are called on to help assess, for elected officials and the citizens of the local community, the impact of such public investment in private enterprise.

This book helps the interested reader gain a perspective on the impact of 15 sports venues that have been jointly...