Stadium subsidy

A stadium subsidy is a type of government subsidy given to professional sports franchises to help finance the construction or renovation of a sports venue. Stadium subsidies can come in the form of tax-free municipal bonds, cash payments, long-term tax exemptions, infrastructure improvements, and operating cost subsidies. Funding for stadium subsidies can come from all levels of government and remains controversial among legislators and citizens.

When surveyed, 86% of economists favored eliminating public subsidies for professional sports franchises.^[1][2][3] According to economists, state and local subsidies to build stadiums for professional sports teams are unlikely to result in economic benefits that exceed the costs to taxpayers.^[4][5][6] Stadium subsidies have distributional effects, primarily benefitting wealthy owners, players and other staff of sports franchises while imposing costs on the public.^[7] Stadium subsidies are widely criticized for using taxpayer funds to benefit franchise owners, who are often billionaires, to the detriment of public schools and infrastructure.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}