J.C. Bradbury

This op-ed reveals the author's lack of basic intelligence.

I guess they figured that the answer must out there, somewhere.

Mayor Joe Petty said he remained in support of the ballpark project. “People keep on criticizing the ballpark on a regular basis without knowing what they’re talking about,” he said. “It hurts the city of Worcester when we talk about this. It hurts the people who volunteer over at the ballpark, the people who work at the ballpark, the people that play over at the ballpark and the people who use the ballpark outside the Red Sox organization. We could’ve ended up just having brownfields and just left it like that. I think it was a good investment.”

And what does the mayor think? Shut up and enjoy the new ballpark!
www.masslive.com/worcesterred...

How much is Cleveland’s mayor giving up in exchange for $80m Browns payout? Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and the Cleveland city council are fighting over whether the council will get to rework Bibb's settlement of the Browns stadium standoff, and I almost wrote about it yester...

I am aware of the jurisdictional challenges and need for cooperation (I'm sure you know more about the local specifics), but these seemingly benign clauses are often inserted as a Trojan Horse with malicious intent. See my comment here: www.fieldofschemes.com/2025/10/28/2...

YouTube video by billshaner91 Nicole Apostola comes to city council and intellectually bodies the city admin

An important step in improving public policy towards stadiums (and other projects) is looking back and holding responsible parties accountable, like this. #PolarPark #WorcesterMA www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wcy...

As someone who's reviewed scores of stadium deals, I think that's a naive interpretation. These cooperation clauses are routinely used to access the public resources. Haslam isn't saving anything close to "$100 million" on legal fees, and he's not doing it for charity or good will.

When it comes to stadium deals, "coordination" clauses typically end up costing taxpayers lots of money. This doesn't deserve such a charitable interpretation.

No. No. No.

Entertaining nonsense lends it credibility. Totally unacceptable journalism.

Political scientist Elisabeth Gerber: "if voters do not like what initiative proponents are selling, not even vast amounts of campaign spending can get them to vote for a new policy." press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

How local taxpayers could still pay for the new Broncos stadium Owners want to privately fund the potentially $4 billion stadium.

Straight from the old fiscal illusion playbook: A stadium is always "private" if you don't count the government contributions. This trick only works if journalists are too lazy to do their job, and it works most of the time.

Imagine if Big Tobacco lobbied for subsidies based on the health benefits of cigarettes. Would editorial boards like @expressnews.com enthusiastically back them? This is the norm for stadium proposals. Just utterly embarrassing.

Despite promises of new jobs, San Antonio's unionized hospitality workers come out against Project Marvel UNITE HERE Local 23 officials question whether the new jobs will pay a living wage.

The subtitle of my book is "False Promises and Fiscal Realities of Publicly Funded Stadiums" because the people pushing them consistently lie about their being economic catalysts and job creators. It's mind-blowing that they consistently get away with it.

Dave Roberts going to the bullpen.

Decoding the complicated funding structure behind the Spurs arena To shield residents from the cost, San Antonio is getting creative with TIRZ dollars and other tools. Critics caution it could backfire.

sanantonioreport.org/decoding-spu...

Much of the funding for the San Antonio arena comes from property taxes, and hotel and car rental taxes are not fully paid by visitors (this is Econ 101 stuff). If this is such an obviously good deal, then why do they have to lie about it? THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE STADIUM.
buff.ly/9G9dTmK

Money has totally ruined baseball.

In case you were wondering, Freddie Freeman is older than Sid Bream was in 1992.

Paper abstract

Now available on-line at Economics and Human Biology: "The impact of health shocks on worker performance: Evidence from Major League Baseball." Joint work with Yulia Chikish
Link to ungated version: authors.elsevier.com/a/1l-nQ,Zjej...

Cranes, a raid and automobiles: Hyundai’s Georgia plant wraps wild first year As Hyundai's Metaplant celebrates its anniversary, it also acts as a prelude of what’s to come for Georgia as the auto giant accelerates its investment plans.

But what's most important is the cronies we made along the way.

Pay for itself? Ongoing Polar Park revenue shortfall angers Worcester residents It's the second year in a row the city has had to use its budget to pay for the shortfall, and likely won't be the last.

This isn't just the second year in a row that the "anticipated" revenue from the Polar Park development has come up short; it's never paid for itself. Perhaps, a good news story would be to go back and talk to the people who said it would. www.masslive.com/worcester/20...

Good grief, both of these "truths" are false. *At best*, the move will be neutral for Northeast Ohio (how could it be anything but?), and I think it's more likely that losing the stadium will make way for more downtown development.

There was a time, not that long ago, when journalists actually investigated all aspects of a deal, especially details that were noticeably absent from the official press release. How can you evaluate a policy proposal if a key aspect of the agreement isn't known?

Evaluating the $100 million deal Mayor Justin Bibb struck with the Browns: Editorial Board Roundtable Our Editorial Board Roundtable offers its thoughts on Cleveland's $100 million deal with the Browns to remake the city's waterfront after the Browns head to Brook Park.

How did the entire Plain Dealer editorial board miss that the "$100 million deal" with the Browns obligates Cleveland to commit to funding an unspecified amount on infrastructure improvements to support the Brook Park stadium?

Funding a new Rays stadium could be even harder this time Local elected officials told Axios that a partnership with the Rays could be a hard sell.

Unless the new owners have a secret deal in place with the state, it looks like the Rays are going to have difficulty getting a new taxpayer-subsidized ballpark.

New Spurs arena builds on legacy of grandfather Red McCombs This is bigger than me, my family or any single institution. It’s about belief in San Antonio’s potential and boldly stepping forward.

The San Antonio Express-news trots out all the local nepo-baby trust-fund kids to insist that a tax is not a tax. www.expressnews.com/opinion/lett...

Browns’ $100M offer is deal or no deal, Mayor Bibb says, even as council pushes for more say Mayor Justin Bibb said the Haslam's offer is firm, even how that money is spent.

The Browns need the old stadium for another year and an unspecified amount for infrastructure. "You need to approve it all, now or never" is normally a sign of someone who doesn't want the deal scrutinized, because of how lopsided it is in its favor.

As stadium boom resumes, ‘private funding’ often comes with public strings Cities eager to tout privately financed sports stadiums are still spending big through tax breaks, land deals and public financing that shift costs back to taxpayers.

A good look at the fiscal illusion that hides taxpayer dollars flowing to "private" stadiums.