Read about it in this Bloomberg.com article. Steve Sailer has always criticized Obama for pushing for luxury policies during a recession, such as wind power. But we see that even mainstream conservative businessmen may still believe that we have all sorts of money that we actually don't. While bringing a major league soccer team to Portland would delight the local SWPL dopes, the economic forecast there doesn't look hot enough to splurge on such a luxury.
Indeed, after the heavily black states of Michigan and South Carolina, Oregon has the highest unemployment rate -- no surprise for the state that boasts the highest per capita rate of semiotics majors. All of that educational malinvestment in phony arts degrees during the booming 1990s and 2000s is finally coming around to bite them in the ass.
Soccer is mainly sponsorship (read: advertising) supported, and so local downturns wouldn't be as focal as they would be in other markets.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Milligan Paulson (what his name -should- be) is aiming for the post-Amnesty America with his proposals when we have about 40 million more Hispanics than what we do now. THEN the NEW Portland would definitely have enough soccer fans to support a pro-team (full of little brown men the Swipples may not find themselves so enthusiastically cheering for on the inside).
ReplyDeleteYes, Im aware of how cruel I am.
It's undeniable that up the road in Seattle, the Sounders MLS team is doing very well. Whether that has any lessons for Portland is another matter. Seattle's a good deal bigger, its sports fans are still reeling from the loss of the Sonics, and in any event the Sounders aren't looking for an expensive stadium deal.
ReplyDeleteThere have been a number of economic reviews of publicly financed sports stadiums and arenas, the Sports Economist blog often discusses them, and as far as I recall no stadium or arena deal has ever had a significant positive effect on a city's economy.
Peter