When the Atlanta Braves opened Truist Park in 2017, Main League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred known as it a “watershed” second.
What drew such a lot consideration to the brand new Braves’ stadium in suburban Cobb County, Georgia, on the time used to be its building inside of a mixed-use building, referred to as The Battery Atlanta. Truist Park anchors a live-work-play campus that comes with eating places, retail outlets, resorts, places of work and apartments. The speculation used to be to create a year-round appeal slightly than construct a standalone stadium that serves best as a game-day vacation spot.
Manfred declared that this kind of mixed-used district “provides a road map for clubs to get new stadiums built.” And he’s now not on my own in that trust.
The Tampa Bay Rays’ new proprietor, Florida home-building wealthy person Patrick Zalupski, hopes to imitate the Braves’ means, calling it “the gold standard of what we want to build and develop here in Tampa Bay.”
However what do mixed-use initiatives like The Battery imply for host communities?
As an economist – and lifetime Braves fan – who lives a couple of miles from the complicated, I’ve had the original alternative to enjoy The Battery as a group member, in addition to find out about it as a student. I’ve attended many video games, visited on off-days and tested its affect on surrounding companies, county assets values, gross sales tax receipts and tourism. My impending e-book, “This One Will Be Different: False Promises and Fiscal Realities of Publicly Funded Stadiums,” seems on the historical past and economics of public stadium initiatives, together with my native land Truist Park.
Tampa as a public spouse
Crucial to Zalupski’s proposal to construct a brand new US$2.3 billion ballpark is a hefty contribution from taxpayers. He’s asking town of Tampa and Hillsborough County to fund no less than $1 billion of the associated fee.
That’s greater than triple the $300 million Cobb County dedicated to construct Truist Park in Georgia, which used to be funded through a mix of assets, lodge and condominium automotive taxes.
Along with that $1 billion, the state of Florida is providing $180 million for transportation enhancements and rebuilding Hillsborough Faculty, whose land can be donated to host the brand new building.
Rays CEO Ken Babby insists that the immense public outlay is worthwhile. He described it as “a generational opportunity” for the group that “will strengthen the region by creating jobs, encouraging economic investment and supporting long-term growth.”
However 50 years of constant analysis findings display that sports activities venues don’t generate a monetary providence for host towns. The overpowering proof in regards to the restricted financial advantages of stadiums has produced a robust consensus amongst economists that sports activities venues don’t seem to be profitable public investments.
It’ll appear counterintuitive that stadium occasions fail to spice up native economies, as a result of enthusiasts obviously do spend huge sums of cash attending video games. However lots of the spectators within the crowd are locals, who reallocate their spending from different space traders, slightly than producing new business task.
Blended-use to the rescue?
When the Braves and Cobb County leaders introduced their stadium imaginative and prescient, they hopefully predicted that The Battery used to be the important thing that might liberate the industrial doable of the stadium. Truist Park’s complementary building used to be touted as a sport changer that might propel its financial luck.
Understanding that previous stadium offers have been unprofitable for surrounding communities, the workforce stated {that a} standalone venue used to be not likely to repay financially. However with The Battery, president of the Braves Construction Corporate Mike Plant promised, “We’re going to build a city, and we’re going to create tons of jobs, tons of density and year-round tax revenues.”
Now that Truist Park is getting into its tenth season, we will assess what the stadium building has intended for the native financial system the usage of historic knowledge.
The Braves’ mixed-use building has certainly boosted the workforce’s base line. In 2025, for instance, Atlanta Braves Holdings reported that the mixed-use part added $97 million in earnings – basically from hire, parking and promoting – on best of $635 million from baseball operations.
With the ones numbers, it’s no surprise the Rays wish to practice the Braves’ blueprint.
At the left, enthusiasts stroll thru The Battery to Truist Park on sport day, April 11, 2022. At the proper, The Battery throughout the low season, Feb. 22, 2022.
J.C. Bradbury
Sadly, the Battery hasn’t been a boon for taxpayers. My analysis displays that the relocation of the Braves did draw in some new spending into Cobb County. However the features were some distance too small to hide the county’s debt provider and different investment responsibilities, producing an annual lack of round $15 million.
And what spending is also imported into Cobb occurs throughout the baseball season. In different phrases, The Battery has now not been a year-round appeal.
Why didn’t Truist Park’s ancillary building technique paintings?
Simply as spending throughout the ballpark most commonly represents a reshuffling of native trade, purchases inside the surrounding district in large part come on the expense of different off-campus space companies. And despite the fact that just about $100 million in earnings from the mixed-use building might appear spectacular, it’s trivial compared to Cobb County’s $80 billion financial system.
A brand new gold same old or idiot’s gold?
If the Braves’ mixed-use building hasn’t been ready to repay Cobb’s a lot smaller $300 million subsidy, it casts severe doubt on Tampa’s ballpark-village technique to quilt its billion-dollar ask of taxpayers.
The proof displays that stadiums aren’t able to investment themselves, even with a mixed-use part. The general public investment has to return from any individual, and it’s native taxpayers who in the long run select up the tab.
I imagine the Rays’ plan and an identical stadium tendencies being mentioned in Kansas Town, Chicago, Denver and in different places must be considered as dangerous bets slightly than sound public investments.
