Quote:
Originally Posted by VERVE
Some of my taxes are used to subsidized or assist private businesses like the Dell call center. The City built it on 3 acres of land and renting to Dell for 1 dollar per year. Dell left within 2 years and the building sat emptied for a year and a half. Katz is not the first businessman to ask for assistance nor will he be the last-at least in this case, his dream for an arena district will benefit more than just a few art gallery/museum goers who attend maybe once a year.
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His dream will benefit at most the 80,000 people who attend an Oilers game each year. Did the museum have a previous home in Edmonton? If not the comparison is weak to begin with, as building a new museum added a new activity to the city. There is already an existing hockey arena, so it is not like those 80,000 people who benefit from the new arena do not have an existing complex in which to attend Oilers games. How much did the museums cost? Were they in the 700-800 million dollar range? What private businessman owns the museum?
Fact of the matter is that there have been countless studies done on sports arenas and economic benefits. The economic benefits are almost nil.