The book is one of many in the genre that explains that which numerous economists have determined after years of study: Public stadium deals are nearly never all they’re cracked up to be. Billionaire owners and the elected officials who hand over public tax incentives nearly always overpromise and underdeliver, with the expected economic nirvana always being just around the next corner.

The current St. Louis soccer stadium proposal is hands down better than the last one, in that the ownership group — most of them women from the Taylor family that founded Enterprise Rent-A-Car — are seeking significantly less from city taxpayers than the previous effort. DeMause agrees with that.

“The latest plan is arguably less onerous for the public than lots of other stadium projects out there — and certainly better than the previous soccer proposal for St. Louis,” deMause says. “But that’s damning with faint praise, because the median in stadium deals is ‘pretty awful.’”

After Conway issued his statement about the stadium, I sought an answer to the question: Is it really the greatest stadium deal ever? Just a month and a half ago, it turns out, deMause provided the answer. No.