A feasibility study is meant to be an analysis that considers all of a projects relevant factors. In particular, this includes legal, technical and economic considerations. Then, it helps determine the likely outcomes and chances of success.
In this case the city of Wichita recently released a feasibility study on a new baseball stadium. Thereupon, city officials made the claim that the study proves their proposal is a homerun. However, there are major concerns. For example, there are questions about the true economic impact of the project. Further, ongoing transparency issues with the whole process trouble many.
Analysis of Wichita Baseball Stadium Feasibility Study Looks to ISEG Associate Director Patricia Bradley for Context
Gloria Van Rees’s published an article titled “City Council Members Refuse to Answer Questions on $75 Million Wichita Baseball Stadium” on July 25, 2019 in The Sentinel. Notably, Van Rees quotes Patricia Bradley, Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Growth (ISEG), as an economics expert.
Excerpt:
“The city also provides no basis the 370,000 projected visitors to restaurants and retailers, but even if correct, most of the economic activity from those visits would just be shifted from other parts of the city and result in no net economic gain.
Pattie Bradley, Economist with the Institute for the Study of Economic Growth at Wichita State University, says, “That is generally what we call a substitution effect. Any given family or person has ‘X’ number of dollars of disposable income. We can chose to spend that at the baseball stadium, INTRUST Bank Arena, the zoo, [or] theatres [. Or wherever else] we want to spend that in town. Or we can take those dollars and take them out of town. There is a fixed rate of entertainment dollars. The things that would general grow the economy would be things that increase the income of the people. We have more money; we have more money to spend.”
This isn’t the first time city officials and elected representatives on city council ignored transparency requests on the Wichita baseball stadium. Wichita resident Debra Miller Stevens took out a full-page ad in the Wichita Eagle hoping to shame city officials into answering her question after they repeatedly ignored her written requests. The Sentinel asked the city if they would respond to Stevens, but the city also ignored that request.”
Read the whole article on the new feasibility at the The Sentinel.
