The public cost of Minor League Baseball stadium subsidies
Abstract
Abstract Public financing of major league sports venues has been widely studied, but government support for minor league facilities has not been systematically documented. This study introduces a new database of Minor League Baseball stadium funding to measure the prevalence and magnitude of subsidies. State and local governments have spent $7 billion constructing and renovating 134 minor league ballparks for Major League Baseball (MLB) affiliates, raising important policy implications for moderately sized municipalities. Using MLB's reorganization of its minor leagues as a natural experiment, the analysis finds no income differences between cities that lost or retained teams, undermining the economic rationale for taxpayer subsidization.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Sport and Mega-Event Impacts
Sports Analytics and Performance
American Sports and Literature
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Economic Inquiry
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 1079–1096
- Publication date
- 2 April 2026
- Language
- EN