The vast majority of consumers have a relatively inflexible leisure budget. If sports team moves to town, the money one spend taking a family to a game typically is money that is not spent at a local bowling alley, golf course, restaurant or theater. The net effect on spending in the metropolitan area then is zero, or very closes to zero. While sports teams may rearrange the spending and economic activity in an urban area, they are not likely to add much to it. An important exception to this reasoning occurs when sports teams attract new money into an area. If it were true, as the Boston Red Sox claim, that 35 percent of the fans at a typical game in Fenway Park came from out of state, then each game would bring tens of thousands of dollars of new demand to the Boston metropolitan area. Several qualifiers should be noted, however. First, the experience of major league teams in the various sports suggests that the general range of fans from "out of the area" is from 5 to 20 percent (Noll and Zimbalist, 1997a, chs. 2, 15; Crompton, 1995). Of course, this range depends on how one defines "the area." A strict definition of urban limits and, hence, a smaller radius around the stadium or arena, implies a larger percentage from outside the area. A combined metropolitan statistical area which includes several counties implies a smaller proportion of fans from outside the area. Thus, the smaller the radius, the greater the amount of "new spending." Conceptually, the benefit principle of taxation would imply that the delineated area should coincide with the tax jurisdiction that supports the construction and operation of the facility.6 Second, there is considerable evidence that out-of-state fans at most sporting events do not come to town because of the game. Rather, they are in town for business reasons, to see family or for other leisure activities. If they were not at the game, they would spend their money on other entertainment in the same city. Hence, their disbursements in and around the ballpark substitute for other local spending. Further, they may be guests of a local business or family who pays for the tickets and concessions, in which case there also is no new money attracted from outside of the area (Noll and Zimbalist, 1997b). Some stadium proponents have also argued that the local sports team attracts visiting media personnel from other cities. This, of course, is as true for journalists as it is for television or radio reporters and team members themselves. But there is no net contribution here, because the inflow is offset by a similar outflow of team members and media personnel when the local team plays away games. Finally, in addition to attracting some new spending from out-of-state fans coming to ball games, professional sports teams also receive distributions of national television contracts and other funds from their central league office. To the extent that these funds remain in the local economy, additional new local demand may be attributed to a sports team. As we shall see in the next section, however, certain substantial leakages retard this effect.
1. Read above sentences and explain how a “substitution effect” is relevant for evaluating the economic impact of professional sports franchises.