Domestic Policy Subcommittee Hearing on Taxpayer Financed Stadiums, Convention Centers, and Hotels

The public justification for public financing, including construction financing with tax exempt bonds, is that this is an investment that brings jobs and consumers to a city’s downtown. Academic research on the value to economic development, however, has universally concluded that sports stadiums, convention centers and hotels do not increase economic activity in downtown areas.

• Ms. Joyce Hogi, a widow and resident of the South Bronx, New York
• Mr. Frank Rashid, waged an unsuccessful 10-year campaign to save Tigers’ Stadium in Detroit.
• Mr. Nick Licata, Seattle City Council president
• Mr. Neil deMause, author of Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money Into Private Profit
• Dr. Brad Humphreys, Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Dr. Heywood Sanders, a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio and an expert of convention center expansion
• Mr. Dennis Zimmerman, Director of Projects at the American Tax Policy Institute
• Mr. Bob Murphy, President, Dayton Dragons, Dayton, OH
• Mr. Micah Green, co-CEO, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
• Mr. Donald Korb, chief counsel of the International Revenue Service