$1/2 billion in tax money for a sports palace for an NBA team owned by a billionaire: Blazers fans push for a better Moda Center deal, calling plan a ‘rip off’ for taxpayers | kgw.com
Update: I think its now $600M but who knows? For a while they were planning to divert “climate tax” revenue to renovate the sports palace.
Huge public spending to subsidize entertainment businesses is based on it generating “revenue” for the local economy, and creates jobs.
Numerous economic studies find entertainment palaces lead to economic substitution – most of the revenue comes from the local area – and that which is spent on entertainment at the palace is a shift of spending from other local activities. The money would have been spent anyway, but on other local things. It doesn’t generate “new revenue”, but re-allocates spending from X to Y.
Most of the jobs that are created are low wage service jobs in the hospitality and restaurant industry.
