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“What they really end up doing is shifting activities across sectors and across locations.”

Tombe said public subsidies for professional teams usually only benefit political careers of city politicians: “Cynically, I would phrase it as it provides a very good photo op.”

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Conference Board of Canada senior fellow Glen Hodgson, who co-authored Power Play: The Business Economics of Pro Sports, agreed that taxpayer money spent on an NHL arena takes away funds that might be used to build public recreation centres, libraries and schools.

But he added that while there’s generally no net economic benefit, subsidies can still be justified if they allow a city to reach certain planning goals. He used as an example the $614 million supplied by taxpayers, ticket buyers and the team to build the Edmonton Oilers’ arena which opened a year ago.

“It looks like an expenditure until you look at what it’s doing for downtown Edmonton, where you’re bringing all of the economic life back to the centre of the city,” Hodgson said.

“Edmonton is going to do very well with development fees, with higher property taxes from downtown, where it may actually turn out to be a really clever investment for Edmonton to move the building downtown (from northeastern suburbs).”

He said the same argument can’t be used to justify subsidies for a new arena in Calgary because its downtown is still “quite vibrant” despite lower economic activity from depressed oil prices.