Readers Digest used to fight CMP

The latest “fact” being used to fight the stadium at the Community Maritime Park is this quote from Allen Sanderson, University of Chicago economist that was in a article in Reader’s Digest August 2005:

If you want to inject money into the local economy, it would be better to drop it from a helicopter than invest in a new ballpark

I found the article (Outrageous! Play Ball — Or Else! ). Its about how MAJOR league owners pressure cities to build $300 million stadiums for their NFL and MLB teams. Sanderson isn’t talking about minor league ballparks.

This is a very common tactic of Save Our City. Take an obscure article, pull a quote from someone with an impressive title and repeat it as often as possible. They used a Brookings Institute similarly in 2005 and 2006. The problem was that study was on major sports parks built primarily in 1980s.

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