even in crappy old harrisburg, PA we have a minor league baseball team.... i think it was the expo's farm team??

anyway... now they want to spend $18M on the stadium....which of course is being funded by the city taxes

I am pretty sure this how the new stadiums in every big city work (philadelphia, pittsburgh, etc... ).....99% of the people don't care to pay for it, but we get screwed into it anyway.

 

The"For the Record" answer is that having the stadium in town is going to increase people coming into town for the game, spendng addional money at restaurants and hotels and other ancillary expenses which increases tax incomes for the city. The same reason is used for allowing tax breaks for the developers.

The real reason: good lobbyists for the sports interests who don't want to shell out the money and simply increase their profits.

 

I am pretty sure no one travels very far to see the "harrisburg senators" who completely sucked last year..... even if they play great there is no way to justify $18M.

I have no idea what the new stadiums in big cities cost, but i would imagine $200M would not be unreasonable.... crazy-ass-chit!

 

I am a huge baseball fan and I am happy for the move of the team. They have signed some good players and should decently compete. Here's an idea of the money that might be spent

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1935356

 

HOLY ING SHIT!!!!!! $630M for a ballpark!

Then they can charge $40-$100 per ticket, $8.00 for a beer, $6.50 for a hotdog!

I am soooo glad I am not into going to any professional athletic games of any sort!


afterthough... it does cost me about $1k per weekend to race my car....but at least I get to do the driving.

 

Baseball is an amazing sport and produces a HUGE amount of revenue. I live in Florida and the closest team is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The tickets really arent too bad and the concessions are going to be steeper at any sporting venue. I visitied dodger stadium in California for the playoffs this year and the experience was amazing.

 

$1K per weekend, Scot? What're you doing - running it on gold instead of fuel?

I guess if you go through one set of tires, that's about $1K, huh? Or what exactly is it that you're shelling out all the dough for?

 

yeah, what a crock!! If taxpayers stopped paying, they would just have stop playing the damn players 50 million per year or whatever they pay them these days. Rediculous

 

Simple supply and demand...not very many EXCELLENT ball-players yet the demand for them is extrodinary.

 

that's b/c people are still willing to pay at that price.

slightly off topic. I remember in residency where this guy came into the ER but had no insurance and was asking for free medical care and drugs. I told him about a free (or very low cost) clinic that had a space on a Saturday. He told me he can't make it b/c he had to take his kids to a baseball game. So he didn't have the money for medicine but he's willing to shell out at least 100 bucks for the game.

So the reason stadiums charge so much is b/c people still pay for it. Simple supply and demand.