Friday 17 August 2007

We will give them games and they will love us for it

As I listened to how many bridges in my state are at least as bad as the one that recently collapsed, I pondered the state of American infrastructure. Blame was spread to many. I heard the need to raise taxes immediately to fix our bridges. I heard we spend far too much on other government programs, we need to fix our bridges and roads. Everyone is always looking to blame someone for their problems. I was just a little curious about how much we as a nation have spent on sports stadiums and arenas lately. I did a quick search, barely spent 5 minutes, this is what I found.

New Yankees Stadium Public financing: $220 million from New York City, Nationals DC Stadium ($611 million), PNC Park, Pittsburgh ($262 million), New Jersey recently ($750 million stadium for the New York Giants football team). $1.843 BILLION (probably a lot of roads and bridges) At least 50 stadiums and arenas have been built in the US and Canada over the last 25 years.

But stadiums bring construction jobs and then vendor jobs. They generate economic activity. Last time I checked bridges/roads and stadiums were both made from roughly the same material and people were used to construct them. My point is if we are going to blame someone we should look in the mirror of the bathroom at our local stadium.

No comments: