I've never taken the view of "ballpark with ignite downtown" and create economic growth.

HOWEVER,
A downtown ballpark can anchor an entertainment district, and both improve the quality of life in El Paso.... Which in turns drives and attracts businesses, professionals, tourism, and so on.

You gotta think big picture, and downstream. But cheap, conservative, negative crazies cant see beyond the plastic structures.

No more debate. I just summarized it from how I see it. You won't convince the rest.... They won't convince you.
Especially when you take the "taxes will have to pay" angle,
then the "economic development will not be driven by a park" angle,
then the "we're building sports venues for millionaires" angle,
then the "don't destroy a city bldg" angle,
and when none work... the "that's beside the point" angle.

(06-29-2013 08:14 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  

(06-29-2013 02:58 AM)randaddyminer Wrote:  

(06-29-2013 02:30 AM)Fitbud Wrote:  

(06-28-2013 07:25 PM)RUNVSFD MINER Wrote:  

(06-27-2013 12:51 AM)Fitbud Wrote:  That is beside the point.

The question should be

Is asking the government to subsidize a sports facility a common thing?

Fixed it for you.

The answer would be yes. And if you asked if said stadiums helped the local economy, the answer would be no.

How much money is coming out of your pocket for the stadium? Why have you dodged that question? Because you know that every study that has opposed the economic effect of new stadiums has centered their main argument on the reduction of disposable income by the local community through taxes. The stadium will not use local taxes to construct the stadium, as it will fund most of it's cost through the HOT tax and the rest by Mountain Star. You no longer have a leg to stand on, because we will not be using property nor local sales tax to fund the stadium, therefore, local disposable income will not be reduced.

Even if the cost of the stadium doesn't come directly from my pocket that doesn't mean that it is bringing in money from somewhere other than El Paso.

The few thousand people that frequent Diablo games and spend money in the surrounding eateries around Cohen will now simply spend their money downtown.

So the stadium hasn't created new money but simply transfered the economic wealth from one place to another.

Day in and day out, it's still predominately the same El Pasoans spending their money on a baseball game rather than a movie.

So where is the economic driver?

It isn't there.


But go ahead and drink the juice and believe that a downtown stadium is going to transform El Paso even though it has proven to not do a darn thing for any other city on the planet.