[nik-]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

It's simply foolish to argue there is no economic benefit of an NHL team/building to a city.

University Of Ottawa Study, released in 2014



http://www.uottawa.ca/media/media-release-2925.html
http://senators.nhl.com/club/blogpost.htm?id=26473

I didn't say there's no economic impact to having an NHL team. I said their is no economic incentive for public funds to go towards a new arena. This study is assuming that none of the money spent on the Senators would be spent at all. It's not "the Senators created 200 million in economic output" it's "200 million in economic output is being directed at Senators related activities". It's moving spending, not creating it.

Also, I find this to be highly suspect.

Approximately 87% of tourists reported that attending a Senators-related event was the principal reason for their visit to the city, and the majority indicated that they were very likely to return.

Really? 87% of tourists to our nation's capital went principally for the Senators? I don't think so. Sounds like a question they were asking right outside the arena on game night.

http://www.ottawa.com/about/main_e.shtml

Canada's Capital region welcomes over 7.3 million visitors per year, who spend over $1.18 billion

6.35 million visitors come principally for the Senators. Ladies and gentlemen, the most popular hockey team in history.

http://cppa.utah.edu/_documents/publ...s-stadiums.pdf

Few fields of empirical economic research offer virtual unanimity of findings.
Yet, independent work on the economic impact of stadiums and arenas has
uniformly found that there is no statistically significant positive correlation
between sports facility construction and economic development

Ignoring the substitution effect. Franchise consultants often anticipate spending that
would happen in and around the new stadium without taking into account spending that
may be reduced in other recreational activities as fans divert their spending.11 Assuming
families have relatively fixed entertainment budgets that they split among many
activities, increased spending at a new stadium will mean decreased spending at other
entertainment facilities (movies, amusement parks, museums, etc.). Thus, we can expect
little economic growth from local families redistributing their entertainment budgets.
Some economic growth can come from those outside the metro area choosing to spend
their money at the sports stadium rather than spending near their home.