I’ve written occasionally on the costly sports arenas and the gussied-up economic impact studies used to justify them, so I’m just going to quote a bit from this Yahoo! sports article on a potential new stadium for the Washington Redskins:
The present-day conundrum for NFL teams: how do you get your fans out to the stadium to watch a game when sitting at home in front of an HD television is so much more appealing (and cheaper)?
The Washington Redskins’ answer: a moat.
Yes, really. In the first round of concept drawings for a proposed new stadium, the Redskins have revealed that their new behemoth will include not only a moat, but apparently a surfing/kayaking wave, a rappelling wall, and a rollerblading circuit.…
The Redskins will not move for quite some time, but they’ve already begun the process of pitting the governments of Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia against one another in an effort to find a suitable site.
One would think it would be rather impossible to make an economic-development case for something when a major part of the cost will be tossing in all the gimmicks needed to compete with just staying at home.
