wsbaseball

I am working on a paper for a graduate class about baseball economics and fan opinion. I'd appreciate any help you guys can give me. Though I realize situations vary from team to team and city to city, I'm just looking for general opinions. Most books focus on owners and politicians and not the fans. The fans matter. That's the focus of my paper. Thanks.

Sorry if I offended you. I am writing a paper about fan opinion and baseball economics. There are lots of books about what politicians and team owners think, but not much about the fans. Reading through this board it is obvious that there are a lot of people who know a lot about baseball on this board, and I think their opinion matters. That's the focus of my paper.

I'm interested in knowing how people got their start.

San Diego and Philadelphia just opened new ballparks that used public money (taxpayer money) to partially finance them. Do you think cities and states should use public funds to pay for stadiums?

When teams try to get ballparks built, they claim that a new stadium will generate jobs and improve the local area. Do you think stadiums can do this, or are local officials and team owners expecting too much?

Do you think sports teams legitimize cities? In other words, do you think of cities with professional sports teams as the “major” cities of this country, while those without teams as something less?

Minnesota's new governor is onboard for a new ballpark that utilizes some type of public money. Right now both St. Paul and Minneapolis are making the case for why their city should be the location. The public officials seem to be lining up and Governor Ventura is no longer a factor.

The Twins are working with their state legislature to get a new stadium built in either Minneapolis or St. Paul. Do you think if the Twins get a new ballpark they will be even tougher competition for the Sox because of the added money the ballpark will generate?