The $61 million Moose Jaw multiplex is only the latest proposal where Saskatchewan taxpayers are sinking millions into sports facilities. Elsewhere, Melfort and Yorkton are getting their own multiplexes. In Regina, IPSCO Place is undergoing a $60 million expansion to add more rinks and seating. And Mosaic Stadium will get a $5.8 million upgrade and maybe even an expansion. Unfortunately, the hard-earned dollars put into these facilities won't result in any economic development.

That's right. Sports stadiums DO NOT stimulate the economy. Academics are crushing this myth with an increasing weight of evidence.

Over the past ten years, economics professors Dennis Coates and Brad Humphreys have done extensive economic studies regarding sports teams and facilities and the public dollars behind them. (The pair were formerly at the University of Maryland, though Humphreys now teaches at the University of Alberta.) Their own research and that of others shows that sports franchises and facilities have a neutral effect on income and employment. Any jobs created in sports and amusement have a compensating loss for income and employment in retail trade, hotels, and bars and restaurants. Amazingly, they found a negative economic impact for every American city with a professional sports franchise between 1969 and 1998.

Why, then, do business impact analysts promise so much from sports franchises and facilities Part of the answer, say Coates and Humphreys, is because they want to. Their vested interests in promoting a successful project guarantee the "If you build it, they will come" message. Another problem is that such studies don't consider what people won't spend money on because the sports franchise and facility is there.

Quite simply, individual entertainment budgets are pretty fixed. Sports teams and the places they play don't change that. They only affect where the money is spent. Did Winnipeg collapse when the Jets left No, it simply made room for a minor pro team, and more money for other sports and entertainment.

Closer to home, no one will move to Melfort, Yorkton, or Moose Jaw because of a multiplex. Although it may be a marginal factor in "quality of life," the largest factors in these equations are job and career considerations, proximity to family, etc. But excessive public dollars spat on sports facilities mean higher taxes-a sure economic drag. How can Moose Jaw, which had a hard time filling the civic centre, suddenly have the capacity for a rink twice the size after it's taxed another $34.5 million out of its citizens

Big sporting events, including the World Junior Hockey Championship, can't justify large public expenditures either. Studies of Salt Lake City and Atlanta show that rent and hotel costs rose during the Olympics, but airport traffic was about the same. Long-term effects were negligible. Even cities that host Superbowls or have pro teams in playoff runs show no significant economic impact.

Strangely, studies show the only positive economic spin related to sports is when a team wins the championship, per capita income goes up that year. This anomaly is difficult to explain, except perhaps that a city swelling with pride is more productive. Regardless, championships are too rare to justify an open vault policy for tax dollars, whether for the Moose Jaw Warriors or even the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

This means any expansion of Mosaic Stadium should be considered carefully and with minimal taxpayer dollars. Unless the Rolling Stones come back, the only time the new seats will be used are the 30 hours each year people fill them for 'Rider games. As it is, sold out contests mean bars and homes across the province are swelled with people watching home games on television instead of being shut out by blackouts. No, it's the Roughriders, their corporate sponsors, and their fans (like me) who would benefit the most from a stadium expansion, and, therefore, should bear the burden of the costs involved.