(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Salt Lake Bees face the Reno Aces at Smith’s Ballpark on Tuesday, April 18, 2023.
By Stephen Maisch | Specific to The Tribune
| May perhaps 26, 2023, 11:51 a.m.
Could Salt Lake City be the epicenter of women’s sports in the United States? Yes. And we must invest in producing it come about.
As an economist, it feels a small strange to be writing these words. One particular of the couple of issues that practically all economists agree about, is that subsidies to sports stadiums give small, if any, tangible financial impacts.
Just after 3 sports economists reviewed 130 research on venue subsidies spanning 20 years, they concluded that “the level of venue subsidies commonly supplied far exceeds any observed financial advantages.”
Las Vegas is betting that this time, issues are going to be distinct. It not too long ago spent $750 million in public revenue to assist construct a football stadium for the Raiders. Now it is poised to commit $395 million to assist fund a baseball stadium for the A’s.
It is not all doom and gloom, although. One particular study estimated that when Akron’s favourite son, LeBron James, came back to play in Cleveland just after a stint in South Beach, the quantity of consuming and drinking establishments inside 1 mile of Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse improved by 13.7% and LeBron’s presence improved employment in bars and restaurants by 23.five%.
Could it be the case that it is not the shiny new stadium but rather what’s going on inside that genuinely matters? I believe so.
That is why, whilst I was sad when the Salt Lake Bees announced they have been taking their talents to South Jordan, I’m excited by a proposal from a coalition of Salt Lake residents, athletes, sports fans, organization owners, and developers to convert the quickly-to-be-empty stadium into a house for women’s soccer, rugby, roller derby, ultimate, and American football — and maybe even extra sports.
It is correct that there would be a lot of distinct sports beneath 1 roof, and some could possibly unfavorably don’t forget the mixed-use baseball-football stadiums of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but it is significant to note why these facilities came into becoming. Numerous cities have been unsure if there was sufficient demand for expert football and wanted to cover their bases with baseball. The pondering went, that if people today are not into these Pittsburgh Steelers and this NFL issue goes bust, at least we nevertheless have the Pirates.
Could 1 of these women’s sports be the NFL of the 1970s? The demand for women’s sports, especially women’s soccer, is only acquiring larger. The 2019 Women’s Globe Cup final among the United States and Netherlands in France drew 14.three million U.S. viewers. (By comparison, the 2018 Men’s Globe Cup Final had 11.four million U.S. viewers.) On the mainland, from 2016 to 2018, the U.S. women’s soccer group generated extra income at the gate than did the male side more than the very same time period. Interest in the women’s squad only appears to be rising, sales of the 2019 jersey have been 500% larger than the 2015 jerseys.
Demand for women’s sports is not restricted to soccer. Deloitte Insights reports that, when searching globally, “66% of people today have been interested in at least 1 women’s sport, and amongst sports fans (of whom 49% are female), that figure rises to 84%”.
We all know there’s no free of charge lunch, although. So, what would this price us?
Nicely, the Bees have been paying $1,250 a month to Salt Lake City to lease the stadium. What these ladies are asking for is a comparable lease. The chance price to the public is therefore the distinction among the $15,000 existing yearly rent and the prospective revenue that could be procured if the stadium land have been created into anything else.
Salt Lake could absolutely get a lot extra than $15,000 a year for these 13 acres — and there are a lot of locations these revenues could be utilized for a lot very good all through the city — but do we genuinely want an additional Gateway or City Creek, exactly where practically all the income flows out of the city to a corporate hub someplace else, supplying in exchange a handful of minimum wage jobs and the subsequent Bed Bath and Beyond?
As an economist, a Salt Lake resident who lives close to the ballpark, and a father who hopes to take his daughter out to the ballgame for a lengthy time to come, I know what I want.
Steve Maisch is an associate professor at the University of Utah, exactly where he teaches a class on sports economics.