[PEN-L:8706] Re: the NFL and urban development

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Devine wrote:

>I contribute too many missives to pen-l and I'm no expert on urban
>development. What do others on pen-l think? Should LA subsidize an NFL team
>to locate here? Is it a good idea for other cities to do so? Does it
>promote the _type_ of development we want? Should the poor hook their
>fortunes to Al Davis and the NFL? (The possibility of "full socializaton"
>seems off the agenda.)

Dean Chadwin, who's got a new Verso book on the New York Yankees (he
hates them), recited me some of the dollar amounts attached to pro
sports. I was surprised how small it all is, economically speaking -
just a few billion all together. It's glamorous, it attracts
attention, but economically it's pretty close to zero. And everyone
who's run the numbers on stadium subsidies says they're a terrible
deal. So the hell with the NFL, I say.

Doug