ABSTRACT
Over the past century, taxpayers have shouldered increasing amounts of the cost associated with building new major league sports facilities. Based on the findings of the historical cost analysis, presented in Chapter 2, this volume, it is also clear that of the public is paying far more than most current estimates state, due to significant and uncounted costs associated with land, infrastructure and ongoing facility operations. For building costs, the estimates of public costs tend to be fairly reliable because these direct costs are easy to measure, simple to follow through public documentation, and are generally released by teams in press releases and on their websites. For land, infrastructure and ongoing costs, however, finding data is more difficult. For example, determining the market value of publicly-owned land is complicated by conditions in local markets and speculation. The question of how to share infrastructure costs among multiple parcels is similarly complicated. The task of estimating public lease expenses involves making a lot of assumptions, and the projection techniques may be difficult for laypeople to understand. Estimating a value for property tax exemptions is straightforward if based on building replacement value, but is controversial as a category of public expense.
