"Expected Local Economic Impact" is Not a Good Justification for Predators' Lease

As the Metro Council is poised to approve the Nashville Predators' new lease tomorrow night, a Vanderbilt economist tells the Tennessean:

In general, sports teams do not generate much, if any, local economic impact .... The reason is simple. Sports teams, and especially those in leagues that play weekday evening games, attract insufficient "new money" into an area to overcome the large leakages created by players and owners who live outside the local area during the off-season and spend a large portion of their income elsewhere .... If there is a reasonable justification for public subsidies to privately owned sports entertainment businesses, it must derive from something other than their expected local economic impact.