Sports and Economy

Arguments against the Marlins stadium typically center around two themes: use of taxpayer (i.e. tourist) money and lack of real impact on local economy.

Focusing on the latter theme, the Sun-Sentinel's Sarah Talalay's article on the impact of the World Baseball Classic on our local economy is an interesting read. I realize there's a big difference between the economic impact of a big tournament such as the WBC (even minus Dominican Republic) and your typical 162-game MLB schedule. Nevertheless, if we lose MLB or any other major sports league, you can also forget about the bumps in local revenue provided by tournaments and events such as the WBC, Super Bowl, All-Star games, etc. Sports can and does bring money, even if they're not year-round events.