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I'd be surprised if the traffic turns out to be as bad as some people predict.
Take a peek at Georgia Navigator right now and let me know how things look. I drove home Paces Ferry -> 285 -> 75S for years as well as Peachtree Industrial -> 285 -> 75N and my life was absolute hell regardless of what time I left. It once took me over 2.5hrs to get home and some days I would take the extreme of Holcomb Bridge -> Crossville surface streets as a means to save time.
Cobb traffic is no picnic. Yet we can't keep dumping the entire burden of big league sports on the city of Atlanta. A small jurisdiction with only 425,000 residents (a quarter of whom live below the poverty line) simply cannot handle the entertainment needs of a region more than ten times its size.
In a way Cobb is the victim of its own success. Its extraordinary growth and quality of life have made it a mecca for businesses and residents alike.
And let's put the Braves in context. In the past year or so, the county has authorized many bond issues -- $25 million for Novelis, $53 million for UCB, $110 million for Kennesaw State, $103 million for the new office tower and residential at Riverview, $24 million for Home Depot, $25 million for Presbyterian Village, and on and on. And nobody complained about any of these.
In that light, snagging a marquee operation like the Braves makes sense.
Are you. In what way are you more qualified then the sources above? Do you focus more on macro or microeconomics? I guess you are not a fan of Milton Friedman then? Do you have any studies (not funded by a sports team) that show giving public money to sports teams helps the economy?
Cobb traffic is no picnic. Yet we can't keep dumping the entire burden of big league sports on the city of Atlanta. A small jurisdiction with only 425,000 residents (a quarter of whom live below the poverty line) simply cannot handle the entertainment needs of a region more than ten times its size.
In a way Cobb is the victim of its own success. Its extraordinary growth and quality of life have made it a mecca for businesses and residents alike.
I agree with this. The tax burden for regional assets should be shared by the region.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arjay57
In that light, snagging a marquee operation like the Braves makes sense.
Though, I don't agree with this conclusion. I think it is still silly to be spending public money on private stadiums. I think Cobb is getting a bad deal on this stadium. But I am not a Cobb tax payer and only stand to benefit. So more power to them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arjay57
And let's put the Braves in context. In the past year or so, the county has authorized many bond issues -- $25 million for Novelis, $53 million for UCB, $110 million for Kennesaw State, $103 million for the new office tower and residential at Riverview, $24 million for Home Depot, $25 million for Presbyterian Village, and on and on. And nobody complained about any of these.
This has got to stop too. Can you give more details? The idea of giving public dollars to private companies as a handout is terrible. Use that money to make your municipality attractive to all business, not single out and bribe a select few.
I agree with this. The tax burden for regional assets should be shared by the region.
Though, I don't agree with this conclusion. I think it is still silly to be spending public money on private stadiums. I think Cobb is getting a bad deal on this stadium. But I am not a Cobb tax payer and only stand to benefit. So more power to them.
This has got to stop too. Can you give more details? The idea of giving public dollars to private companies as a handout is terrible. Use that money to make your municipality attractive to all business, not single out and bribe a select few.
Cobb is still a Republican and tea party hot bed. You already know they're all about attacking public transportation as evil socialism and never an asset while giving welfare to their rich donors.
Are you. In what way are you more qualified then the sources above? Do you focus more on macro or microeconomics? I guess you are not a fan of Milton Friedman then? Do you have any studies (not funded by a sports team) that show giving public money to sports teams helps the economy?
My academic training was predominantly macro. I work for a major commercial bank in small business finance, so today I'm mainly micro. Go figure.
Friedman was a brilliant economist. I'm not sure what that has to do with this discussion.
I don't object to any of the offered studies on public finance for sports stadiums. But, you have to be able read and understand the studies. I could give you any number of studies showing that most new restaurants lose money and go out of business within 3-5 years. Does that mean no one should be in the restaurant business? No. It does suggest that one ought to know as much as possible about why some restaurants fail and some succeed before going into the restaurant business.
In terms of sports stadiums, when you dig into these studies, you find that the big problem for public finance is spending substitution effects. The typical stadium deal is like selling a bucket to a thirsty man. "If you want water, you need to buy my bucket." The man who is both thirsty and perceptive will observe that the actual water is coming outta the hose lying next to the bucket.
So you own the Atlanta Braves and you tell me, "If you build me a new stadium, fans are going to spend $100 million. Otherwise, I'm moving to Boise." Problem is, most of those dollars are coming from local consumers. If the Braves move to Boise, those consumers don't follow them; they spend more money on the Falcons, Hawks, local restaurants, clubs, theaters, etc. The stadium isn't creating the economic activity, it's receiving it. The stadium is a bucket, not a hose. Note that if the sports franchise were bringing enough money in from outside the area -- dollars that otherwise would not have been spent in the local economy -- the calculus might be different. For the most part, though, pro sports teams just don't drive that much tourism.
Okay, so will the new stadium drive economic growth in the Atlanta metro? No, not appreciably. It will capture some dollars that otherwise would have been spent elsewhere in the local area.
However, the new Braves stadium will redistribute economic activity within the Atlanta metro. Dollars that would have otherwise been spent in the city of Atlanta and Fulton County will be spent in the CID and Cobb County. Those dollars will drive sales tax revenues in Cobb County instead of Fulton County. Private investment will flow into Cumberland that would otherwise have gone elsewhere. That investment will increase property values and thereby increase property tax revenues.
The new Braves stadium won't appreciably increase the size of the Atlanta pie. It will give Cobb a bigger piece. Incidentally, this isn't news to sports franchises or to local governments. These days, it's often more effective for franchises to let municipalities and counties within a metro compete for their business than it is to threaten relocation to another city. There was a deal on the table to build a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings in Anoka County. That didn't happen, and instead the team got a stadium deal in the city.
And that's why your studies aren't inconsistent with the stadium deal being a winner for Cobb County.
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