To be clear on one thing, bringing the America’s Cup to San Francisco would undoubtedly result in a lot of additional tourism dollars. A figure of between $0.7 and $1.2 billion has been tossed around. That’s nothing to really scoff at, even in a tourism rich economy like San Francisco.
But there’s a catch with that. San Francisco is going to have to pay some big bucks to get the Cup here:
San Francisco, if selected, would spend $64.1 million on traffic management, environmental reviews, security and other event-related costs, according to the budget analyst’s report, which was provided in response to a request from Daly.
The city is expected to recoup $22 million of those costs in taxes generated by increased visitor spending.
Overall, that means that San Francisco, which has a current budget of $6.6 billion and is facing a $712 million projected budget shortfall next year, would spend $42.1 million hosting the Cup while city departments are being asked to slash costs, according to Rose.
Additionally, the city would provide the team with $89.8 million worth of property and waterfront development rights, which would be partly recouped with $3.6 million in additional property taxes. (Bay Citizen)
Now, I am a big fan of sporting events. I go to a lot of Giants games during the season (I even used to live across the street from the stadium), and have been known to get a ticket for the odd football game too. However, I’m not such a big fan of governments paying to get the events. In the case of stadiums, I think it is pretty ridiculous that cities in the same metropolitan areas compete with each other. It is a race to the bottom, where the only real winner is a wealthy owner, and the loser is the taxpayer.
You could argue a nationalistic point of view for the America’s cup (and other international events). At least we are bidding against other countries, but the point is that this is once again, the taxpayers (ie the middle class) bidding against each other to give money to a few wealthy profiteers. (In this case Oracle’s Larry Ellison)
Would the Cup a) really net us that billion and b) be worth the expenditures necessary to get it? I’m not opposed to hosting these kinds of events, but I look at these things through a purely economic point of view. In other words, would the Cup be a net cost or a net gain for the city’s coffers. In this case, I’m just not sure the numbers really pencil out.
I’d be interested to see how they calculated those estimates. But if they’re even close that’s all money that’ll be spent at local restaurants, bars, hotels, stores, and vendors selling lots of gear. Not to mention some construction jobs for the development.
That’s a pretty big shot to our local economy and if it costs us $128M to do that, seems like a decent investment to me.
This is chump change for Larry Ellison — a likely competitor.
Americas Cup is like a 2 year event. 128 Million is cheaper than an Olympics which never pay off, just ask Greece, and cheaper then a football stadium. They will leave behind an upgraded dock setup the upgraded facilities I think will be a net positive.
Marie
83 million is chump change to larry, he should pay. If he looses or decides he doesn’t like sailing in the bay he could move to some other location. Out source it to India may be?