Field of Schemes new post Selig promises to help Wrigley reno efforts by ... playing All-Star Game there?

MLB commissioner Bud Selig, according to yesterday's Chicago Tribune headline, is "looking to help Cubs with Wrigley restoration." How? By — drumroll, please — playing an All-Star Game at the ballpark once it's renovated. Cue Cubs-lovin' Trib sports columnist Phil Rogers:

While Selig declined to comment on the Cubs situation, it was revealed during conversations after last week's All-Star Game in Kansas City that Major League Baseball is promising to bring the All-Star Game to Wrigley Field as soon as possible after the ballpark is improved.

MLB's hope is that city officials will see that the economic impact of that event would partially offset the cost of helping the Ricketts family modernize Wrigley, which celebrates its 100th birthday in 2014.

And how much is "partially"? Rogers doesn't say, though he does cite New York City estimates that next year's All-Star Game at Citi Field will "generate $191.5 million for hotels, restaurants and other New York businesses," adding: "You can argue about economic-impact studies all day long and not find a method acceptable to all. But MLB has found that the bigger the market, the bigger the impact."

Presumably Rogers means here that New York and Chicago have more expensive hotels than Kansas City, so visitors spend more when they're there. But it's worth noting that Philip Porter's research tends to show the opposite: the bigger the market, the more people coming to town for the big game just displace people who would otherwise be visiting, but instead steer clear because of the big game. (Chicago, despite its insane heat, gets tourists in mid-July — I've seen 'em. Kansas City, less so.)

In any event, unless Chicago hotels are willing to subject themselves to a tax surcharge in order to get a single All-Star Game, it's hard to see how Chicago could monetize this to help pay for the Cubs' demands for up to $300 million in public subsidies for a Wrigley reno. But it's nice that Bud cares about Wrigley, anyway, even if not enough to actually open up his checkbook.

from Field of Schemes http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2012/07/5017_selig_promises.html