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06 February 2009

KQED interview

Earlier this afternoon I was interviewed by Sarah Varney of KQED-FM's The California Report. The interview was nearly 20 minutes long and ran the gamut of ballpark, site, and economic topics. I'm not certain if any of it will be used. Regardless, a podcast/stream link will be up for the story once I get it.

4 comments:

daveinsm said...

nice ML!

Hope it gets used when they run the California Report

Anonymous said...

Here's the only ballpark interview Sarah's posted recently.

http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R902061730

Jeffrey said...

I think that interview was a bit of a gloss over a complicated issue.

1. First it assumed that all stadiums are publicly financed, and I agree 300% that publicly financed stadiums never pay off for communities.

2. In his example of how a ballpark becomes a "sink hole" he referenced the NFL. It is true that the benefit to the community is based on the number events scheduled at the venue. People come and spend money and drive tax revenue for the community. But football is an extreme example as there are only 10 games a year (20 if you include two teams in a single stadium, more if you get the superbowl, playoffs, a regular college bowl game, etc.) ... baseball there are more like 84 including preseason contests. So the number of additional events needed to make it "good" for the community from a tax perspective is way less from the outset.

I would like to hear a comparison and contrast on the economic benefits. I know in San Francisco and Denver that the initial boost to the municipalities was almost entirely driven by property tax revenue as they took blighted warehouse districts and turned them into commercial/office and mixed use residential areas. I think a similar opportunity exists in Fremont, at Pacific Commons especially.

Anonymous said...

Seems like the comparison that Jeffrey wishes to make is a fair request. The comparison which Jeffrey asks for was indeed mentioned in the report and data is widely available from other sources online if he doubts the statements therein.

The report clearly stated that THERE IS NO DATA FROM ANY SOURCE WHICH SUBSTANTIATES THAT STADIUMS create ANY economic advantage to their community - irrespective of whether construction was publicly financed or not. . .

I encourage Jeffrey to listen to the report again and if s/he still has doubts, research some of the same questions briefly. . . . the data is widely acessible and very lopsided in its assertions