> Sports teams provide utility to people in the region, including people who never pay a cent for a ticket or merchandise.
Wait, what? Are you sure? I don't see a value of having sports teams other than entertainment.
> How do you quantity that value and should the government compensate the sports team for that value?
Maybe a good start would be to simply ask the people "how many sporting events have you been to in the last three months?"
If large numbers of people aren't that interested in sport now, they'll probably remain uninterested in the future.
OTOH, if large numbers of people are interested enough to go to games then they'll probably remain interested enough to go to games in the future.
My personal experience (not in the US), is that fewer than 1 in 20 people are interested in going to view live sporting events in a stadium.
Wait, what? Are you sure? I don't see a value of having sports teams other than entertainment.
> How do you quantity that value and should the government compensate the sports team for that value?
Maybe a good start would be to simply ask the people "how many sporting events have you been to in the last three months?"
If large numbers of people aren't that interested in sport now, they'll probably remain uninterested in the future.
OTOH, if large numbers of people are interested enough to go to games then they'll probably remain interested enough to go to games in the future.
My personal experience (not in the US), is that fewer than 1 in 20 people are interested in going to view live sporting events in a stadium.