This One Will Be Different
False Promises and Fiscal Realities of Publicly Funded Stadiums
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 17 October 2026
- ISBN 9780197820216
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages440 pages
- Size 235x156 mm
- Language English
- Illustrations 39 b/w line drawings; 22 b/w halftones 0
Categories
Short description:
In This One Will Be Different, sports economist J.C. Bradbury draws from fifty years of academic research and his up-close and personal experiences with the Atlanta Braves's Truist (SunTrust) Park stadium deal to explain why publicly funded venues never deliver on their promises. Moving beyond the standard explanations of league monopolies and special-interest lobbying, Bradbury reveals how pliable politicians-drawn to the prestige and perks of professional sports-commit vast sums of public money for their own private gain. This book blends economic analysis, political insight, and vivid storytelling to examine the reasons why politicians continue to fall for the stadium grift and make the case for reform.
MoreLong description:
For more than a century, America's sports stadiums have evolved from modest, private ballparks into billion-dollar play-palaces for the rich-built increasingly on the backs of taxpayers. Government commitments to major-league venues are approaching $50 billion, and a looming wave of new construction threatens to double public outlays by the end of the next decade. Elected leaders justify the massive subsidies by arguing that stadiums are economic catalysts, despite overwhelming evidence that sports venues are unwise public investments.
Why does this keep happening? The refrain is always the same: This one will be different. The Atlanta Braves's Truist Park in Cobb County, Georgia is the latest example. Marketed as a game-changing mixed-use development that would create a year-round economic hub, the project has fallen far short of its boosters' lofty projections-just like all the venues that came before it.
In This One Will Be Different, sports economist J.C. Bradbury draws from decades of academic research and his up-close and personal experiences with the Cobb Braves stadium deal to elucidate why publicly funded venues never deliver on their promises. Moving beyond the standard explanations of monopoly leagues and special-interest lobbying, Bradbury reveals how pliable politicians-drawn to the prestige and perks of professional sports-buck the will of their constituents to approve increasingly generous taxpayer handouts to billionaire team owners.
Authoritative yet accessible, this book blends economic analysis, political insight, and vivid storytelling to examine why politicians continue to fall for the stadium grift and presents practical steps for reform. Bradbury argues that improved transparency, greater understanding, and giving voters a direct say at the ballot box have the potential to break the stadium subsidy cycle.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: We're Going to Build a City
The Problem
The Homes of the Braves: Atlanta Becomes Major League
America's Addiction: The Path to Stadium Mania
The Seen and the Unseen: Economics of Stadiums and Broken Windows
The Stadium Replacement Cycle: What Will the Next Construction Wave Cost?
Disposable Stadiums: Selling More Than a Ballgame
Other People's Money: Incentivized Opulence
This One Will Be Different
The Braves Way: Crossing Lester Maddox's Bridge
It Takes a Ballpark Village: Mixed-Use and Zero-Sum
How to Make $300 Million Disappear: Fiscal Illusion
Merchants of Hope: Spreading Pseudo-Economics
Taking Inventory
The Rooster and the Sun: Understanding Causality
A Home Run for Cobb?: Return on Investment
If You Build It, Who Will Come?: The Visitor Economy
You Can't Put a Price on a Billion-Dollar Stadium: Intangible Public Goods
Nobody Goes There Anymore, It's Too Crowded: Development Externalities
Is There an Economic Case for Public Stadiums?: A Requiem for Market Failure
Why Does This Keep Happening?
Monopoly Money: Empty Threats and Cheap Talk
Snake-Oil Scales: Developing More Than Players
The Cocktail Party Consensus: Your Friendly Neighborhood Growth Coalition
The Chamber (of Secrets): How the Braves Really Came to Cobb
Democracy Interrupted: Politicians versus the People
Fake News: Accidental Advocates and Editorial Sycophants
Shoot Anything That Flies: Doing "Economic Development"
Denial
Ex-Post Parley: Experiencing the Braves Way
Moving the Fences In: If You Torture the Data Long Enough, It Will Confess
Shilling for a Stadium: Buying Credibility
Accepting Responsibility
Improving Policy: Kicking Billionaires off the Dole
The Road to Recovery: This One Will Not Be Different
Appendix A: Historical Database of US Major-League Venues
