Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Letting Teams Walk: Exploring The Economic Impact Of Professional Sports Franchises Leaving Cities, Jesse Stephenson

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Cities often use public funding to help construct and renovate the facilities of large, private sports franchises. As the major sports leagues grow in popularity and revenue, cities have had to offer increasingly competitive incentive packages to owners in order to keep their team from relocating to more profitable markets or cities willing to issue public funding for new facilities. Much literature has been conducted on the economic impact of sports teams with a general consensus that there is usually no positive economic effect for cities that serve as homes for these teams from the largest leagues (NFL, MLB, and …