Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit, Revised and Expanded Edition

by Neil deMause, Joanna Cagan

Field of Schemes is a play-by-play account of how the drive for new sports stadiums and arenas drains $2 billion a year from public treasuries for the sake of private profit. While the millionaires who own sports franchises have seen the value of their assets soar under this scheme, taxpayers, urban residents, and sports fans have all come out losers, forced to pay both higher taxes and higher ticket prices for seats that, thanks to the layers of luxury seating that typify new stadiums, usually offer a worse view of the action. The stories in Field of Schemes, from Baltimore to Cleveland and Minneapolis to Seattle and dozens of places in between, tell of the sports-team owners who use their money and their political muscle to get their way, and of the stories of spirited local groups—like Detroit’s Tiger Stadium Fan Club and Boston’s Save Fenway Park!—that have fought to save the games we love and the public dollars our cities need.  This revised and expanded edition features the first comprehensive reporting on the recent stadium battles in Washington DC, New York City, and Boston as well as updates on how cities have fared with the first wave of new stadiums built in recent years.

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Politics, Nonfiction, Economics, History, Business

424 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2008

Reviews

[Dave Cottenie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eye opening recount of numerous scenarios where stadiums were built complete with top notch research. Seeing how the political process works behind the scenes was shocking for sure. However, Field of Schemes provided for some very slow reading and the reader feels almost beaten down with example after example after example of political proceedings that makes the stomach turn.

[Joshua · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read enough. even if the authors are correct, they aren't being objective at all. The lowest point was when they used a team owners position in an "antiabortion" group to vilify him.

Usually, if I don't enjoy something, I think "well what was I expecting?" Usually I don't have an answer for that besides "Not that!" This is the rare case where I knew what I expected: there is a chapter in Baseball Between the Numbers that does a great economic analysis of stadium financing and comes up with the conclusion that is the thesis for this book. BBtN is completely objective, whereas this book starts with "stadium financing is wasteful and owners are villains" and only provides evidence to support that statement.

If you value objectivity, avoid at all costs; if you are the choir and want to be preached to, go for it.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a big fan of this book for a few reasons, the first being I love sports and I love to hear about sports teams all over the country and world. This book was very interesting because it went through the ins and outs of building sports arenas, starting at sponsors and getting the public vote and using tax dollars to build these architectural beasts. Several different factors go into making these stadiums reality is very complex and interesting, one cool thing that I learned is that Papa John's pizza is a huge investor in these buildings and that is why in almost every stadium you can see at least one Papa John's logo or branding somewhere in the stadium, for example the "Papa John's Cardinal Stadium" for the university of Louisville in Kentucky will obviously show a plethora of America's sweetheart John H. Schnatter the owner and face of Papa John's pizza. This book also shows that sometimes when a team has a stadium built for them in a new place, and that team moves away somewhere new, that stadium goes to waste as it becomes completely vacant and useless now that no team can play there anymore.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a sports enthusiast, his really peaked my interest... When I bought this (2017), the Coyotes ownership and them threatening to move the team to another stadium was fresh in my mind. You also later had the Suns threatening to move their team and the Diamondbacks even got on the bandwagon and threatened to move as well (yes, I follow AZ teams).

After reading the website by the author, I saw he had this book and I grabbed it and was glad I did! Great read and eye-opening!

Even if you don't like sports and don't go to the games, your still affected by taxes and politics that are a part of the stadium game. Reading this will help you understand what goes on!

[Steve Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably a solid 4.5. A deep dive into the deal cutting and manipulation for what amounts to corporate welfare. Good research and solid writing--though there were a few asides that seemed out of place--chronicling the growing trend of the public footing the bill for new (and often unnecessary) facilities for professional sports franchises. Interesting for discovering how this process works, or simply to rekindle the flames of anger toward the people involved. The final chapter detailing the success story of Fenway Park served as not only a positive ending, but also to demonstrate the battle can be fought and won. Occasionally, anyway.

[Will Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an in-depth look at how professional sports teams get their stadiums built with public money. I enjoyed learning about all the different places that have had to deal with this issue, and learning about some of the sneaky ways pro teams dip into public coffers. This is yet another way the rich get richer, and everyone should learn more about it.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful (and infuriating) look into the way that sports stadiums get built, who pays, who profits, and how it keeps happening. Should be required reading for all sports fans, and anyone desiring a look behind the curtain to see how politics works here.

[Charles Eliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Think of this as a microcosm of failed democracy, in which - once again - money ends up being transferred from the not rich to the already rich. Grrr.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

We're screwed.

[Gregg Eldred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is your city being held for ransom by billionaires for a new stadium? This is the book to read.

[Aaron Sinner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Briefly: A diatribe

Pitched as an academic examination of public financing for sports stadiums, Field of Schemes quickly shows its true colors as an attack on such projects. While it is quick to question the motives of those who support stadium projects as wise investments, the book spends more time scoffing at stadium deals than it does proving them failures—even as it sometimes begrudgingly admits stadium projects have corresponded with city revitalizations in places like Baltimore and Cleveland, before kicking these ideas aside in favor of further attacks. Similarly, the book tries and fails to blend together the building of the new Detroit Tigers stadium with the general economic malaise of Detroit, implicitly suggesting the new stadium caused Detroit’s economic downfall.

At its best, the book does a good job of telling the stories of stadium deals and projects in locales across the U.S., explaining the backroom negotiations and public battles over government funding. At its worst, the book meanders into a general denunciation of corporate welfare, government corruption, and media complicity with the politically powerful, using societal assumptions about the self-serving nature of politicians and journalists as a launching ground. The largest failing is simply the book’s decision to treat the problem as self-evident rather than truly working to prove the problem—ironic, given it criticizes stadium backers for treating the economic benefits as self-evident.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both troubling and important, this book uncovers the corporate welfare behind a generation of new sports venues. More specifically, it reveals how multimillionaire sports owners have blackmailed communities into surrendering vast amounts of public money to build them glistening new stadiums and arenas. Thus, as many municipalities struggle to pay teachers and first responders or to repair crumbling infrastructure, wealthy team owners greatly enhance their riches at the public's expense. Oh, and those glistening new venues? Beautiful as they may be, more and more they separate the wealthiest from the rest of us, placing the average fan further and further away from the action. As a fan, I found it a tough read; but as a taxpayer, an essential one.

[Katherine]

I'll have more of a real review of this soon...for now I'll just say I highly recommend this!

Wow, I just checked out the 1998 edition of this book, excited to read it but thinking it'd be outdated (but still very relevant) and it turns out there's a brand-new edition. I'd wanted to read about the end of the old Comiskey Park and Tiger Stadium, but I'm glad I'll get to read about the more recent Yankees stadium story, among others.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate all stadiums now. This is an impassioned plea to stop financing madness. I had read elsewhere that this was the best book on the subject. It is an upsetting read, but not necessarily a great read. The book is very repetitive and reads more like a set of articles pushed together. That said, there is no denying the import of the subject and the book's thoroughness. Finished April 2014.

[John Weiler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, even if it brought back many not-so-good memories of greedy men who broke the hearts of loyal fans and/or raided the wallets of people who just happened to lived near a sports franchise those men owned.

The author goes off on a few too many tangents for my liking. But, all in all, I am glad I read it.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book that shows how sports teams' owners take advantage of taxpayers to enrich themselves. It's outrageous and seemingly endless. Marlins Park, which broke ground long after this book published, is widely considered the worst deal ever. It will cost South Florida taxpayers billions--for a team no one bothers to watch.

[Sean McKenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough review of the scam that is public funding of stadiums and arenas. It's incredibly depressing to see how the same tactics are used over and over again to milk cities and states that are desperate for "big city status" out of millions of dollars.

[Actiondan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important topic exhaustively argued. Maybe a little too exhaustively, and repetitively, but worth reading. Consider reading just the first third; after a while you get the idea because the same pattern plays out in city after city, really.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even if you're an avid baseball fan who loves your new park, no matter who pays for it, it might be beneficial to read the other side of the story. The authors make for case for foregoing public funds for these ballparks, given that they primarily benefit team ownership and few else..

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read half. Maybe next baseball season, I will read the other half.

[Robert Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative but longer than it needs to be. Chapters tend to repeat themselves.