SEPTEMBER OF 2018
Last paragraph
If so, Zimbalist’s freelance work is helping to muddy the waters further, by providing cool academic certainty to something that is far murkier: The guy who hates stadiums says it’s a good deal, so what more do you want, huh? What team owners want, even more than a shiny new building, is something to counter the narrative that, as Andy Zimbalist once put it, “In every case, the conclusions are the same. A new sports facility has an extremely small (perhaps even negative) effect on overall economic activity and employment.” Already, the Red Sox farm team in nearby Lowell is looking for its own bucket o’ cash, and minor-league teams across the nation are likely readying their “$100 million is the going rate for Triple-A stadiums” and “Don’t be the next Pawtucket!” pitches now. If it costs $225 an hour to get there, that’s money team owners will consider well spent.
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“I think the point has come across really well,” says Zimbalist. But, he adds, “you ask, do people understand this? I think in Worcester, they don’t even want to understand it. There’s a tremendous amount of excitement about bringing the team there."