Stadiums and Subsidies: Home Run for Wealthy Team Owners, Strike-out for Taxpayers

Over the next several years, residents of New York City will be compelled to cough up a minimum of more than $200 million1 in subsidies to help build a new baseball stadium for the beloved, reviled, and always newsworthy New York Yankees. This story is different not because ordinary taxpayers are shouldering a significant burden for a franchise worth more than $1 billion2 – unfortunately, that’s all too common these days. The dubious distinction is that taxpayers’ $200 million will cover less than 20 percent of the total cost of the stadium. Not only is it remarkable that a stadium costs so much, but it’s almost as remarkable that taxpayers aren’t footing a larger portion of the bill. Just as many of their players have set records on the field, the Yankee brass is setting one off the field: They are constructing what could be America’s first billion-dollar stadium.