Sad the Royals aren’t in the World Series? The city’s budget may be, too
For the first time in two years, Kauffman Stadium is not going to host a World Series game. Weird, right?
The Royals were left out of the 2016 postseason, and their absence will be felt in more than fans’ hearts. At a recent presentation at the Kansas City, Missouri, Tax-Increment Finance Commission, the city’s finance director showed graphs indicating a link between winning baseball and rising tax receipts.
The city’s sales and use tax collections shot up in the 2013-14 fiscal year and then again in 2014-15. Randall Landes, Kansas City’s finance director, believes there’s a connection between the revenue increases and the Royals’ recent success.
The Royals don’t deserve all the credit. Some of the bump can be attributed to a half-cent sales-tax increase for parks that went into effect in 2013. But tax receipts continued to climb in 2014-15, suggesting that another factor was in play. Landes guesses the city was riding a “blue wave.”
It makes sense. Teams and politicians generally overstate the economic impact that professional sports franchises have on their communities. But a winning team moves the needle more than a losing one does. In addition to increasing attendance during the regular season, the Royals’ pennant- and World Series-winning teams each hosted eight postseason games. These games mean something, as evidenced by the scarcity of hotel rooms in downtown Cleveland during the Indians’ march through the playoffs.
Landes says that during the 2015-16 fiscal year, which ended in April and included the Royals’ 2016 World Series run, the city “held on to most of the gain from 2014 to 2015.” The first four months of 2016-17 fiscal year, which coincided with the 2016 regular season, also look robust.
The Royals drew 2.5 million fans in 2016, second most in club history. But the season ended without Eric Hosmer-subsidized bashes in the Power & Light District. If the city’s tax receipts show a dip in October, we’ll know the Royals effect was real.
