A COVID-sports related item was reported today on D1ticker.com, a news clipping outlet that shares information in college sports. Bottom line is how municipal downtown development authorities (DDAs) are using their share of COVID-19 relief money from the American Rescue Plan to improve athletics facilities. Think about this, and the rationale: should taxpayer money be used to enhance stadiums? Was that the intent of the COVID relief law, and if so, how do stadium renovations help communities with COVID relief?
Sportico reports on this, and I have a summary below from D1ticker.com. There was a lot of pandemic relief money from the government, and figuring out how to spend it all may not be the best type of policy decision:
"The Caesars Superdome in New Orleans - site of this weekend’s MBB Final Four - is using $27M of American Rescue Plan funding for renovations according to Sportico’s Coffey, who reports the Superdome is one of several sporting venues utilizing the federal aid to the same end. “Among the uses disclosed so far: $11.6M to build an addition to Dutchess Stadium, the home field of the Hudson Valley Renegades. … [And] in Ohio, Franklin County, which owns the Columbus Clippers, the AAA affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, gave itself $3M to ‘offset negative impacts of the pandemic’ on the team’s stadium, which it also owns." Holy Cross economist Matheson: “It’s really squinting at things to make any sort of argument that fixing up the roof of the Superdome is a pandemic-related thing. … We had about a 50% drop in employment in the spectator sports industry between February and April [in 2020]. The industries were crushed… so that was all probably pretty reasonable. Now we have a bunch of leftover pandemic money that they’re figuring out how to try and spend, and we’re getting much faster and looser with the rules.”
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