A new Sports On Earth commentary by Patrick Hruby quotes UMBC professor Dennis Coates, economics, in arguing that eliminating “sports welfare” among college and professional sports teams and owners would provide an “easy, overdue fix to the nation’s fiscal woes.”
Coates believes more money would be available to indebted cities with professional teams and stadiums if athletes kept their money in the communities where they play, instead of the southern California or south Florida areas where they often live. “If that same money was spent on a movie, dinner, bowling, the theater, a locally-owned bar, tips for bartenders and waitresses, all of that money predominantly stays within that community,” says Coates.
Coates also commented in the Baltimore Sun on the Colonial Athletic Association’s decision to award Baltimore’s 1st Mariner Arena the men’s basketball conference tournament for 2014-2016. Coates thinks it’s too soon to tell how the tournament will fare in Baltimore, but speculates that the city could lose money putting on the tournament instead of turning a profit.
