COBB COUNTY, Ga. — It’s hard to estimate the amount of money that Cobb County and metro Atlanta will lose after MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game.
Cobb County estimates it will lose around $100 million. The July event hoped to draw people to restaurants, hotels and businesses near the Battery and across metro Atlanta. In 2019, Major League Baseball estimated the All-Star Game gave a $65 million boost for the local economy in Cleveland.
Channel 2′s Matt Johnson talked to Thomas Smith, an economics professor with Emory University, who said the lost dollars would affect businesses outside of Cobb County as well.
“Not all that $100 million would have been spent within, let’s say, one mile of Truist Park,” Thomas said. “That would have been spent all over the Atlanta area.”
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
TRENDING STORIES:
- Stimulus check update: What is ‘plus-up payment’ and does it mean more money for you?
- Some Braves fans requesting season ticket refunds after MLB pulls All-Star Game
- Alonzo Brooks: FBI confirms 2004 death of Kansas man featured on ‘Unsolved
But not every economist agrees that the loss of the game is as disastrous as it sounds.
J.C. Bradbury teaches economics at Kennesaw State University. He said these numbers tend to be inflated.
“The reality is that the economic impact is closer to zero,” Bradbury said.
Bradbury said other studies of All-Star Games by independent economists show small changes in sales tax revenue.
“When you’re talking about some event being $100 million, that would show up in the data, and it just doesn’t show up. It’s too small of an event to have that type of an impact,” Bradbury said.
The reasoning is that money that locals would spend on an All Star game still gets spent across the county.
“It’s not net new spending. So we really don’t get any richer by hosting the team,” Bradbury said. “But I mean, maybe there’s some pride benefits to that. And that’s perfectly fine. We just need to be honest about that.”
At its core, an All-Star Game is a showcase for the world, and a showcase no longer for metro Atlanta.
“An event like this actually does capture those dollars, because it encourages people from all over the country to come and experience our great city,” Bradburry said.
So far, Cobb County has spent only about $30,000 of $2 million set aside to help put the even together. That money is expected to be put back in the general fund.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]