J.C. Bradbury: The Case Against Stadium Subsidies

Professional sports teams love to ask local governments for public funds to build their stadiums. The teams claim these subsidies will "pay for themselves" through increased tourism and entertainment spending. But economists aren't so sure. For decades, researchers have cast doubts on these claims, yet local governments continue to help wealthy owners with their construction costs.In this episode of Political Economy, I'm sitting down with economist and sports fanatic J.C. Bradbury to learn more about why these stadium subsidies don't seem to work out in the end. J.C. is a professor of economics at Kennesaw State. Along with Dennis Coates and Brad Humphreys, he's the author of the new study, "The impact of professional sports franchises and venues on local economies: A comprehensive survey."

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Tune in each week as James Pethokoukis interviews economists, business leaders, academics and others on the most important and interesting issues of the day. You can find all episodes at AEI, Ricochet, and wherever podcasts are downloaded, and look for follow-up transcripts and blog posts at aei.org.