Professional Sport Stadiums: Do They Divert Public Funds From Critical Public Infrastructure?

This hearing will examine whether or not public subsidies for professional sports stadiums divert funds and attention away from America’s public infrastructure. This is the subcommittee’s second hearing on the topic. On March 29, 2007, the Domestic Policy Subcommittee held a hearing that looked at the promises of economic prosperity that are made to cities which finance professional sports stadiums. The first hearing revealed that no evidence has been found to suggest that professional sports stadiums create jobs, raise incomes, or raise local tax revenues.

America’s infrastructure is crumbling while state and local officials approve taxpayer-financed professional sports stadiums. About 31 percent of the nation’s urban bridges are deemed structurally deficient, awaiting public investment. At the same time the public is paying about 80 percent of the costs for new professional sports facilities.

Witnesses for the hearing include:

Panel I
• Mr. Eric Solomon, Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, Department of Treasury
• Mr. Arthur J. Rolnick, Senior Vice President and Research Director, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Panel II
• Professor Judith Grant Long, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
• Professor David P. Hale, Director, Aging Infrastructure Systems Center of Excellence, University of Alabama
• Ms. Bettina Damiani, Director, Good Jobs New York
• Dr. Steven Maguire, Specialist in Public Finance, Congressional Research Service