Let private groups take stadium risks

The Daily Herald favors McHenry County College's plan to build a minor league baseball stadium as part of a planned expansion ("MCC expansion plan worth second look," Oct. 20), arguing that "hard-pressed taxpayers" would benefit.

There is virtually no independent evidence to support this belief. Overwhelmingly, independent economists who have studied public funding of sports stadiums conclude the public loses.

College officials say revenue from the minor league stadium would fund one-third of the proposed expansion, yet their own numbers show the stadium would consume more than one-third of the total spending. This makes the proposal a taxpayer subsidy of a private profit-making venture.

Taxpayers are likely to be more hard-pressed if the college or any other local government risks the taxpayers' money to build a minor league stadium. Let the minor league investors build a stadium themselves.

Steve Stanek

Research fellow

The Heartland Institute

McHenry