This paper investigates the relationship between professional sports franchises and venues and real per capita personal income in 37 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States over the period 1969-1994. Our empirical framework accounts for the entry and departure of...

In recent years, sports franchises have frequently used their monopoly power to extract rents from state and local governments. Taxpayers in cities all over the country foot the bill for new stadiums, improvements to existing stadiums, or infrastructure needed to make new stadiums or arenas as...