2418...Stanley Cup Economics

First off I gotta think it is pretty cool to have the Stanley Cup in your town. I have been in both Montreal and Ottawa during the Stanley Cup finals and there is a buzz.

That said the economic impact may be overstated. Neil deMause posted this on his fieldofschemes website:

Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer featured a rare article that debunks the usual wild claims of economic windfalls from pro sports playoff games: Despite the Flyers playing in the Stanley Cup Finals, notes the paper, neither the team nor the city will reap all that much money as a result.

In particular, notes economist Andrew Zimbalist, the claims by Flyers president Peter Luukko that the city will gain $200,000 in tax revenue per game are likely inflated, since "pretty much all the people who are going to be at the arena will be from Greater Philadelphia, and they spend money at the arena instead of spending it somewhere else in the Philadelphia economy."

The numbers might be a bit bigger in a hockey town such as Ottawa; heck even with two teams that don't have much of a fan base in our Capital playing the bars were hopping on both Saturday and Monday nights.

WFDS