Here is a link to Colin McEnroe's column in today's Courant which raises some great points about credibility and the way this has been handled or more accurately mishandled.
Economists, environmentalists criticize Hartford stadium plan
Posted: Sunday, December 13, 1998
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Government predictions that a stadium for the New England Patriots would be an economic boon to Connecticut are drawing fire from some economists.
In a study for the governor's office, KPMG Peat Marwick estimated a stadium would create some 2,700 jobs in and around Hartford.
But more than a dozen economists interviewed by The Hartford Courant said those assumptions are flawed and have created too rosy, best-case scenario.
The projection was based on assumptions that the stadium would fuel $107 million in direct spending when it opens in 2001 for everything from parking, to tickets, to meals and hotel rooms.
Ninety percent of that spending would not happen in Connecticut without the stadium, the study said, and it would lead to an added $74 million in "indirect" spending and the need for more jobs.
"This resembles more of a wish list than it does a statement of precise impact," Robert Baade, a sports economist at Lake Forest College in Illinois, said of the KPMG study. "I've looked at every single city that had any kind of change in its professional sports industry between 1958 and 1992 ... and we just don't see any kind of impact at all."
The stadium plan also is drawing criticism from environmentalists.
The proposed bill, to be voted on by lawmakers Tuesday, states that environmental and other permits will be granted automatically if applications are not reviewed within 10 business days. And those reviews would be done and decided on by the commissioner of the state agency looking at the applications. State agency commissioners are appointees of the governor.
"It would be impossible to conduct an adequate environmental review of a project of this magnitude within 10 days. The idea to me is ludicrous," said Donald S. Strait, executive director of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment. "You can't look at a project like this and make the correct determination in a two-week period."
The fast-track permitting process was defended by a key legislator who is still undecided on the stadium proposal.
House Majority Leader Moira K. Lyons, D-Stamford, said she believes the DEP and other state agencies should be able to meet the 10-day deadline for reviewing applications without taking shortcuts.
A report released by the Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Co. this week estimated the cost of an environmental cleanup on the site at $20 million.
