New study calls WooSox stadium a bad deal for Worcester
By 
The WooSox may have hit a home run with huge attendance numbers at their new home in Worcester, but a study says the city has whiffed when it comes to shelling out public dollars to fund the team’s new stadium.
The Red Sox Triple-A farm team moved from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to Worcester in 2021, setting up shop in Polar Park, a new $160 million stadium owned and largely paid for by the city of Worcester.
Last season, the team’s second year in Worcester, the Worcester Red Sox drew more than 500,000 fans, second among all 120 minor league teams in the country. And the WooSox arrival has unquestionably contributed to the upbeat buzz about the state’s second-largest city.
But Robert Baumann, an economics professor at College of the Holy Cross, says the stadium still adds up to be a loser for the city’s finances. In a new paper, Baumann and co-author J.C. Bradbury, an economist at Kennesaw State University, conclude that Polar Park will cost the city $40 to $60 million over 30 years.
Worcester officials pushed back against any idea that the development district was not covering its costs on the stadium loan.
“Current revenues from the District Improvement Financing are fully covering expenses related to the ballpark,” the city said in a statement. “The report appears to use outdated information and the city remains confident that the project will result in a positive return on investment.”
Baumann said the city has run into several hurdles, including a huge cost increase in stadium construction, and an economic slowdown that has meant only one new hotel, not the two that had been planned, going up in the district.
But Baumann says even if tax revenue in the new district covers stadium borrowing costs, a city-commissioned analysis released before the stadium was built failed to adequately account for development that would have occurred in the area anyway over time, even without the ballpark. The city is acting “as if the area would continue to be barren for 30 years,” said Baumann.
The new study also says the analyses the city relied on did not sufficiently take into account that money spent at a ballpark tends to “‘crowd out’ spending that would otherwise go to other local businesses.”
“Perhaps the most egregious error of commissioned studies is counting all economic activity associated with stadiums, teams, and events as new spending,” Baumann and Bradbury write.
Their paper also looked at the economic impact of publicly-funded Truist Park, the new Atlanta Braves stadium that opened in 2017. They said it also will have a net cost to local government, concluding that it will yield “negative returns” of $100 to $200 million to Cobb County.
“People are unironically wearing Worcester gear, which is nice,” he said of the local pride the team is bringing. “You don’t see that ‘Paris of the 80s’ tongue-in-cheek nonsense,” he said of a line that took hold a few decades ago when the city was in the economic doldrums.
“I agree there is a benefit,” he said of the lift the stadium has given to the local zeitgeist. But Baumann said that doesn’t negate the voluminous economic literature on the bad deal for public coffers of publicly financing sports stadiums.
“Don’t kid yourself,” he said. “They don’t pay for themselves.”
MICHAEL JONAS
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FROM AROUND THE WEB
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
A proposed moratorium on homeless encampments sweeps in Worcester is drawing mixed responses, with divisions over safety forming between city councilors, advocates, and city health officials (Worcester Telegram)
ELECTIONS
In the wake of a federal judge’s ruling that threw out the city’s redistricting plan for its nine district city council seats, Mayor Michelle Wu is moving to delay filing deadlines for the fall city council election. She said dates for the preliminary and final elections can remain unchanged as long as councilors agree on a new map by May 30. (Boston Globe)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Waltham-based Inkhouse, one of the Boston area’s largest PR firms, is being sold to New York-based BerlinRosen Holdings. (Boston Globe)
EDUCATION
A three-day strike by school bus drivers in Marlborough comes to an end. (WBUR)
A student publication at the Amherst Regional Middle School accuses counselors of transphobia. The district is investigating whether there has been a Title IX violation for sex discrimination. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
ARTS/CULTURE
The city of Boston has worked out a deal to secure new rehearsal space nearby for hundreds of musicians who were displaced when a Brighton building they occupied was sold. (Boston Globe)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Attorney General Andrea Campbell and a group of her colleagues are urging the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission to develop regulations to reduce emissions from gas stoves. (Eagle-Tribune)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
An appeals court overturns convictions of two parents – Gamal Abdelazis and John Wilson – in the Varsity Blues scandal. Abdelazis was cleared of all charges while Wilson is cleared of all charges except filing a false tax return. (Associated Press)
Federal prosecutors appear to be investigating allegations that guards at the maximum security Souza-Baranowski Correctional Facility retaliated against prisoners after an attack on officers in 2020. (WBUR)
The former head of the State Police union gets 2½ years of prison time on federal fraud and racketeering convictions. (Associated Press)
MEDIA
