In “economic impact reports are ridiculous, but some are more ridiculous than others” news, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert says that if Detroit gives him $300 million in city funding plus free land so he can build a soccer-stadium-plus-other-stuff complex on the proposed site of a new jail, it will create $2.4 billion in economic impact, because sure, why the hell not?

I can’t find the actual study anywhere — it’s not anywhere on the website of Rock Ventures, Gilbert’s real estate umbrella firm, or on the site of Mark Rosentraub’s University of Michigan Center for Sport & Policy, which conducted it — but I’m sure I can guess where it came up with that crazy-high impact figure: Gilbert says he’ll spend $1 billion on construction of the soccer stadium and surrounding development, so add in a smidge more for money spent at actual soccer games and apply a standard multiplier effect, and you can certainly get to $2.4 billion. (I’ve asked Rosentraub and Rock Ventures for a copy of the study, and will report back here if I get a look at it.)

Wayne County executive Warren Evans immediately called the study “irrelevant” and said it “does nothing to sway my thinking,” but not because of anything about the numbers — rather, Evans is just concerned that building a soccer stadium will delay getting a jail built. (Gilbert says he’ll build a jail complex elsewhere if he gets the stadium land and money.) It doesn’t sound like this plan is going anywhere fast, but if so, it’s less because of the actual economics underlying it than because Major League Soccer is still less popular than jails, which seems to be the trending message these days.