So what if L.A. didn't get the World Cup?

A few sports honchos around town are disappointed, but these things never provide much of an economic boost. Yeah, I know the boosters keep insisting that sports is some sort of second coming for the L.A. economy, but it's really not. Dennis Coates, an immediate past president of the North American Association of Sports Economists, lays it out in the short piece for the NYT:

Incomes don't grow faster, more jobs aren't created, governments don't rake in significant hauls of new tax revenues. In other words, the best evidence produced by disinterested researchers is that the economic value of hosting the World Cup or Olympics is not especially large.

The discussion is worth having in light of the overheated efforts by AEG's Tim Leiweke to build an NFL stadium next to Staples Center.He's promising thousands of new jobs and other economic benefits, though the specifics have been conveniently left out of his presentations. Greg Nelson, former chief of staff for Councilman Joel Wachs, has heard it all before. From City Watch:

It's as if we didn't learn anything from the firestorm that developed around the failed attempt by the developers of the Staples Center to secure a king's ransom in taxpayer subsidies for the arena. It's OK to get excited about a National Football League team returning to the city, but not if you think it's going to help the area's economy.