Let's consider the $138 million claim

I’m putting this always in terms of “Does this justify a tax on a random Brewers/Rangers game to pay for it?” Since the money stays with the Cubs there is no reason a non-Cubs fan should be kicking in when ST tickets are already pricey. Since the benefit is not evenly distributed and the league wouldn’t fold, it’s not justified.

Am I against all forms of public funding? No. But this is a horrible funding mechanism that is in effect asking everyone else to have fewer people in the seats to put more people in Cubbie seats.

of out of town visitors.
Of tangible boost to the economy. Do you have sales tax figures for Mesa during March versus any other time of the year? For the county?

The gist is the cubs are not special and deserve no special treatment from the folks in Arizona, period.

First of all, the Applebee’s dishwasher example was not real, it was just my way of describing the type of logic the Pollack report was using to generate the $138M economic impact figure, which includes (in their words),“Lower amounts of spending support fewer employees who spend money in the economy, so the losses become even larger.” Which is where my Applebee’s example came from. As I said, exaggerated, but not much.

When I said I was only slightly exaggerating, I meant the example only slightly exaggerates the way they determined the economic impact. It’s their methodology, not mine.

As Jim says, the 2nd report, which is where the widely circulated $138M figure came from, is mostly fiction. It just takes the $339M figure that the Cactus League uses (who knows how that was arrived at) and then 22% of that is $78M. The 22% is supposedly the part of Cactus League attendance that is comprised by Cubs fans (which I have already called into question). It then takes the $78M direct loss and extrapolates that into $138M in total economic impact.

Here’s what the report says: “As the most popular team in the Cactus League, the Cubs have a disproportionate economic and fiscal benefit to the State of Arizona compared to a "typical" Cactus League team. To measure this disproportionate impact of the loss of the Cubs the overall impact of the Cubs departure from the Cactus League was analyzed. The analysis, completed by Elliott D. Pollack & Company, assumes that the Cubs depart and are not replaced.
Overall Cactus League attendance would have been almost 345,600 attendees fewer, representing a 22.0% loss in attendance.
Many of the lost attendees would have been out-of-area visitors and so in addition to the game related spending that would result from the lower attendance, there would be a loss in travel related spending, including lodging, food & beverage, transportation, etc. In total, $75.0 million dollars of Cactus League generated spending would be lost.
The $75.0 million in directly lower spending would impact the overall state’s economy by over $137.8 million dollars as hotels, restaurants, retail stores, and other businesses would have less activity and in turn lower their payments to suppliers. Lower amounts of spending support fewer employees who spend money in the economy, so the losses become even larger.
In total, the losses (including direct, indirect, and induced) would translate into over 1581 lost jobs in the State of Arizona and over $50.9 million in lost wages.
The loss of jobs, wages, and economic activity by the departure of the Cubs would also mean lower state tax collections. Lower sales tax collections, lower bed tax collections, lower gas tax collections, lower income tax collections, and others would total over $5 million per year. Over a ten year period, the loss would be almost $50 million.”

can you also understand why the fan of another team might feel the same way towards fans of their team?

I find your phrasing interesting. My experience leans more towards D’Backs fans acting stupid than them acting like jerks or overtly aggressively, like Raiders fans, for instance.

Or, as this guy demonstrates:

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/league-of-her-own/assets_c/2009/10/moran-sign-thumb-337×430-25721.jpg

I’ve heard Cubs fans say that the jerk factor with D’Backs fans is very high. And as far as their being more of them, that is why I originally put it in terms of percentages.

All this is based on anecdotal evidence, which unfortunately, is not very scientific. I went to the NFC Championship game at UoP last year, and it was teeming with Eagles fans, whom I would expect by reputation would be about as unsufferable as they come. So I paid especially close attention. What I found was that they were enthusiastically supporting their team, but not out of line at all, and surprisingly good sports about the friendly ribbing they got from the home crowd. (I’m sure they see much worse in NY).

As far as Cubs fans at Chase…I’ve been to many games and I don’t think the jerk factor is that bad. I do get a little tired of hearing the canard about how the D’Backs would never sell out Chase if it weren’t for Cubs fans and how they own the place. My response is that you may think you own Chase, but in reality the D’Backs own the Cubs.