The Royals last week “included projections” for how much economic benefit a new $2B ballpark would bring, but some national sports economists who study new stadiums and their economic impact say that the teams’ numbers “are fiction," according to Mike Hendricks of the K.C. STAR. The team last week “released a 16-page report outlining the economic boost the ballpark and real estate development would bring the community.” Heavy on photos and graphics, the document “contained no underlying documentation to explain the study’s methodology, or support its projections.” That lack of data “concerned the economists.” All three experts “scoffed at the document’s claims.” They “characterized it as propaganda to support the team’s request for taxpayer support” to build the $1B ballpark and $1B commercial district “adjoining it.” Temple Univ. Professor Michael Leeds said, “The numbers look nice, but there is no explanation where they came from.” Kennesaw State Univ. economist J.C. Bradbury said he “found nothing useful in that document, and I mean in the sense that we don’t know where those numbers came from.” He added, “What I’ve seen from the Royals ownership, some of the statements they’ve put out, is that it is very much just straight-up gaslighting" (K.C. STAR, 8/25).
