Let’s get a sports team!
One of those things that Everybody Knows is that public expenditure for professional sports is a crummy deal, that whatever money comes in — and it’s always less than projections — ends up by design in the pockets of movers and/or shakers.
Just the same, the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets are circulating a study which asserts that the development of the city’s Arena District — the Jackets play in Nationwide Arena, the centerpiece of the District — has put $2 billion into the local economy since 2000. Maybe, maybe not. The Urbanophile, for one, is skeptical. But he’s prepared to argue that the traditional return-on-investment model is not really applicable in these instances:
[W]e should look at it as a marketing and branding expense. In effect, when cities pay hundreds of millions of dollars to team owners to put a franchise in their town, what they are really buying is naming rights to the team.
Consider, for instance, the cost of advertising:
How much money do advertisers pay to get their names on TV? A 30 second Super Bowl ad is $2.7 million or so. That’s what Budweiser pays to get 30 seconds of air time. But when the Colts were in the Super Bowl, the name “Indianapolis” appeared for a heckuva lot longer than 30 seconds. Think about what you would have to pay the TV networks to put your name on the screen and on the lips of the commentators (even that jerk Chris Collinsworth, who has always hated the Colts) as often as “Indianapolis” appears. The price tag would be staggering.
And you have to figure Columbus would like to get a piece of that kind of action. The Blue Jackets actually made it to the post-season in 2008-09; playing for the Stanley Cup doesn’t score anywhere near as many impressions as playing in the Super Bowl, but what’s a small city to do?
This also helps explain why small cities subsidize sports so much more than big ones. It’s not just about big market vs. small market revenues. Bigger cities aren’t as dependent on pro sports to get their brand message out.
Columbus, as it happens, is a hair bigger than Oklahoma City. Then again, the MAPS projects in this town, it is claimed, have brought in $5 billion, and while a goodly portion of that showed up before we ever got an NBA team to call our own, cakes do need icing, and maybe an occasional Bud to wash them down.
Blair »
9 November 2009 · 7:24 pm
Makes sense to me. Of course, your team has to make it into the Championship, or, at the very least, regularly be on national television to cash in on the marketing. Either way, I think the psychological boost to citizens (that have traditionally had inferiority complex), and the shared community spirit that comes with a local franchise liked by both Sooners and Cowboys, are also valuable and important.
BTW, where did the $5 billion figure come from? I thought the chamber study said $3 billion.
CGHill »
9 November 2009 · 7:54 pm
“$5 billion” is the number they were circulating on Wimgo’s MAPS 3 Vote page. I suspect it’s probably impossible to get more than a couple of significant digits, regardless of magnitude.
Charles Pergiel »
9 November 2009 · 9:19 pm
Everybody Knows? Shades of Elmore Leonard, er, Leonard Cohen, or maybe even the Cohen brothers. Color me happy.
Brian J. »
10 November 2009 · 6:47 am
It’s a definite tell when they put their pinkies in their mouths when they
make upannounce those figures.