Week 3- The Economics of Baseball

Money drives the world of baseball and all other sports in America. Billions of dollars go into stadiums, player contracts, and team equipment every year. The main focus for the economy of baseball in the Tuesday articles were the economics behind baseball stadiums. I've always wondered why the cities have to pay for new stadiums and after reading these articles it seems to be due to greed from the owners of the corporations, as stated in "Major League Baseball, like the NFL, ask taxpayers for free money".   These corporations leverage and strong arm cities to get their stadiums payed for. Citizens of the city, rich and poor, are paying for a stadium that the billionaires at the top would have no problem funding. In addition to having to pay for the stadiums through taxes, several people see gentrification in their neighborhoods due to these new stadiums. That is a good thing for some but can be bad for residents that are no longer able to afford their property due to rising prices, as covered in "RIP Wrigleyville, Welcome to Rickettsville". This article made it clear that these corporations or people owning these MLB teams really do not care about who they are affecting as long as they are making money. The effects of gentrification of the neighborhood is an uncontrollable product of a new stadium but I think the severe change in ticket prices was not necessary. I understand a new stadium means more expensive tickets but doing this just priced out some of the Cubs most loyal fans. I understand professional sports are a business and they need to make the right business decisions but I feel as though making ticket prices so much more expensive was greedy. The worst part is the owner of the Cubs, Todd Ricketts, isn't even a baseball fan. To me, this shows he doesn't care about the culture surrounding baseball at all, just money.

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