It looks like cities that host spring training sites bleed money, most of it going into the pockets of the ball clubs:
The Republic’s analysis of financial records of the nine cities that host spring training revealed that:
Mesa has lost an average of $1.47 million annually over the past five years hosting the Chicago Cubs at Hohokam Stadium and Fitch Park.
Phoenix lost an average of $1.7 million over five years hosting the Oakland Athletics at Phoenix Municipal Stadium and an additional $1.8 million annually at Maryvale Baseball Park, spring home of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Peoria lost an average of $1.63 million annually over the past five years hosting the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners.
In four years of operation at Camelback Ranch, Glendale has lost an average of $18,882 annually. The Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers are responsible for most day-to-day operations there. In 2012, the city’s revenue agreement with Phoenix kicked in, and Glendale made $57,804.
The answer seems to be to make the teams pay for the park upkeep. Otherwise, taxpayers are just throwing money at these teams.
Obviously park maintenance and upgrades are part of this, but does this include estimated tax revenue generated from tourists flocking to these areas for Spring Training? Must be some reason these cities shell out the money.
ERolfPleiss » I believe it does.
As I believed David has explained in the past (on this blog), tourism revenues for baseball teams tend to be significantly exaggerated. Which is why you see much less public spending on stadiums than was happening a couple of decades ago.
A few months ago I read a book called Under the March Sun by Charles Fountain and thought its discussion of the Cactus League interesting. It definitely left the impression a few communities in Arizona were counting on continued population growth and projected tourist tax revenue for reimbursement of up-front costs. A couple were able to build facilities because suddenly a larger amount of tax revenue was projected a decade or more in the future (this was before the worst of the recent recession). Somehow I doubt the leaders of those communities are feeling too comfortable.