Striking Out? The Economic Impact of Major League Baseball Work Stoppages on Host Communities

Victor Matheson () and Robert Baade ()
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Robert Baade: Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest College

No 507, Working Papers from College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics

Abstract: Major League Baseball teams have used the lure of economic riches as an incentive for cities to construct new stadiums at considerable public expense. Estimates of the economic impact of a MLB on host communities have typically been in the vicinity of $300 million. Our analysis suggest these numbers are wildly inflated. Using the baseball strikes of 1981, 1994, and 1995 as test cases, we find the net economic impact for a MLB team on a host city of $16.2 million under one model and $132.3 million under a second model.

Keywords: impact analysis; sports; baseball; strikes; sports economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L83 R53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo and nep-ure
Date: 2005-04
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http://www.holycross.edu/departments/economics/RePEc/Matheson_Strikes.pdf Original version presented to Williams College Economics Department in September 2002. (application/pdf)

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