The 2006 MLB All-Star Game will be in Pittsburgh, and you know what that means: It’s time to play the Economic Impact Game!
Pittsburgh should get a desperately needed image boost from baseball’s All-Star Game in two years, but it’s not likely to get much help on its bottom line, economists say.
Last week’s All-Star weekend was supposed to generate $85.6 million for Houston’s economy and the 2005 events is supposed to produce $50 million for Detroit.
Estimates were not available for Pittsburgh yesterday, but with the city currently on track for a projected $78 million budget deficit in 2006, city officials will surely trumpet windfalls they can get.
Prediction time: the benefit to Pittsburgh will be estimated to be “at least $78 million”.
In Detroit and Houston, the estimated numbers for out-of-town visitors were 30,000 to 67,000, respectively.
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But many economics experts who study the intersection of commerce and sports have found the sky-high expectations rarely, if ever, pay off.
Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, studied labor statistics from 23 All-Star games from 1973 to 1997 and found actual job growth lagged behind projected growth in every case. Games in Montreal and Toronto were omitted.
In a study of county sales taxes at All-Star sites, in Oakland, Anaheim and San Diego, Calif., he showed quarterly tax collections dropped in each case.
According to Matheson, the sales tax drop shows that “mega-events” such as All-Star games can crowd out other possible city visitors: Somebody who otherwise might have booked a convention or conference that weekend in July will pick another date, to avoid the crowding.
Another theory is that visitors who would go to a city anyway that summer to see the sights pick All-Star weekend for something extra to do.
“There might be identical people going to different things,” said Dennis Coates, an economics professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore.
“Instead of traipsing around the riverfront or going to Carnegie Mellon, they go to a baseball game. They’re still there three days, but not all of them are spent congregating in a stadium.”
Something tells me that Comptroller Strayhorn won’t be citing Professor Matheson’s work any time soon.
Look, I favor Houston’s attempts to attract big sporting events, conventions, stuff that brings in visitors. As I said before, I think most people who come here have pretty low expectations, and most of them return home having had those expectations greatly exceeded. Whatever economic impact we may get – and please note, my main gripe here is that all we ever get are a bunch of blue sky numbers pulled from someone’s back pocket – having people come to Houston and see for themselves that it’s not such a bad place after all is worthwhile. All I want is a little perspective.
Via David, who like me will not be attending his city’s All Star Game.
Having visited Pittsburgh several times during hockey season, I can assure you that the city can surprise you. On the other hand, the only reason I would go to CMU would be to watch a basketball game (my cousin’s wife played for the Tartans in the late 80s and early 90s.)
It’s also surprising to see Pittsburgh get the All Star Game so soon after it last hosted one. Typically, the teams should rotate, but that would mean that Shea Stadium (aka The Flushing Dump and The Mistake by LGA)is overdue since it last hosted in 1964 (the year it opened).
It’s also surprising to see Pittsburgh get the All Star Game so soon after it last hosted one.
They have a new (taxpayer funded) stadium, and Beelzebud has made a point of awarding All Star Games to such stadia. Houston had last hosted in 1986, so we got bumped up in line, too.
They have a new (taxpayer funded) stadium, and Beelzebud has made a point of awarding All Star Games to such stadia. Houston had last hosted in 1986, so we got bumped up in line, too.
I guess that’s why Pac B…err, SBC Park in San Francisco hasn’t had one yet — the Giants had the audacity to fund it themselves. Bud doesn’t want this precedent to spread and MUST use the stick to discourage it!
I mean, the argument lacks as much face validity as the sister argument that stadiums help generate economic growth in their neighborhood. To that, the appropriate response has always semed to me to be “Show me.” How did the area around the Astrodome develop from its presence? Texas Stadium? The Alamodome (apart from what was already there). I now live near Philadelphia and the area around the part of town where the FU center and new football and baseball stadiums are is a dump. Wrigley and Fenway are exceptions, not rules.