Instead, Florida Governor Rick Scott, appearing on MSNBC last night, declaring war against Arizona in the fight for spring training teams. His message, "we can outspend you!"
Watch it here around the 10:00 mark:
I've always suggested Scott and Arizona's governor, Jan Brewer, who have been best buds at times, could just work together to end spring training subsidies to Major League Baseball.
That does nothing to dismiss the economic impact spring training delivers to Florida in the form of out-of-town visitors; it merely means Florida's governor and legislature have repeatedly chosen to subsidize an $8 billion business when they've had the chance to stop the insanity.
At this point, taxpayers can only hope local cities, counties, and states stop trying to outspend each other and lawmakers include spring training subsidies in their list of ridiculous handouts they plan on scrutinizing for the first time.
He didn't answer 1 of the questions, and he wonders why Crist will be the next Gov.. As far as the "subsidies", I would probably go to a place like Dunedin, and find out how many people bought houses, businesses spouted, real estate value increases, and jobs created because of the Blue Jays there, THEN write an article about Spring Training...
ReplyDelete"“Multiple generations of Canadians have been coming here and buying homes here for almost 40 years,” Eggers said."
ReplyDeleteActually, they've been buying homes in Pinellas County for MUCH longer than that.
DeleteCom'on NO'ah, though partially right, you know people come on vacation or ultimately move to certain places in Florida because of their sports teams, you just don't want to admit it, because it deflates your ever stated opinion...
DeleteDunedin for instance, the cost of their current ballpark was 2.4 million, do YOU think Dunedin has made MORE or LESS since it was built from the influx of Blue Jay fans that probably wouldn't of chose Dunedin to bring their money, buy a houses, and shop at for their next 20 years???
You're sure right, I've seen it in Ft. Myers first-hand after the Red Sox set up shop there.
DeleteBut are they people that wouldn't have otherwise retired to Fla? Or are they people who would have otherwise retired to Boca Raton or Miami and instead chose Ft. Myers?
I believe its largely the latter, which means the state spends money to merely move economy from one side of its state to another.
I do believe there is a positive economic impact from spring training, and if a new stadium could be built for just $2.4M in public dollars, it would be a great deal. But we're unfortunately talking about $50+M in handouts to pro teams that don't need it nearly as bad as local programs do.
Good point w/ it just moving state revenue from one side of Florida to the other. Though stadiums are a lot more costly these days (partially due to inflation, and the cost of better stuff like digital score boards), houses are more, shopping is more, restaurants food & drinks are more, hotel stays, etc. which should be accounted for. But, above all, I (and you) should believe that the state isn't ramping up this Spring Training campaign w/out big benefits in the long run. I know Gov. waste exist, but these are smart politicians with a lot data. It would be nice if we the people knew their reasoning's, opposed to the stereotypical "Oha no my town wants waste millions on some stupid stadium when I have potholes to be filled on my road (lol)!"...
DeleteIf you think government never makes mistakes, and never is influenced by special interests, than yes, they know better than the majority of economists.
DeleteOha, I know they do, I'm just saying I'm hard pressed to believe investing in building & upgrading stadiums for teams in these cities is just money spent by government just have nice places to play opposed to making financial sense. I guess until we know their data & real reasoning, we can continue to have fun being anti-progressive...
DeleteIt's like saying bringing in right handed Joel Peralta against a lefty batter is dumb, even though the Rays data shows he's better against a lefty then left handed pitchers... #TheTruthWillSetYouFree
The beauty of it all is that in Florida, we do have all their data. Its all public record. And its been examined and re-examined. Which makes the public handouts even more surprising.
DeleteThe projected data that these politicians ponder is "public record"? I doubt it...
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