Apropos of some McHenry County College Trustees having second thoughts about whether their “due diligence” has been diligent enough is the following quote:

“[W]hen a city chooses to use taxpayer dollars to finance a sports stadium, the city’s leaders must consider not only what the alternative uses of those funds could be – such as schools, police, roads, etc. – but they must also figure what return the city would receive from these other ventures . . . .

“This adjusted calculation, though, is almost always missing from sports stadium impact studies.

“Why?

“Because in just about every case, the adjusted calculation would show that the next-best alternative was actually the better alternative.

“Has financing sports stadiums ever been the best alternative?

“Research shows ‘No.’”

This quote is from a study by St. Louis Federal Reserve economist Adam M. Zaretsky.

Although it was written in 2001, the economics are probably still sound.

Credit McHenry’s Steve Stanek for finding this analysis.

McHenry County College does teach economics, doesn’t it?

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The cartoons illustrate the Federal Reserve article, where this chart showing major stadiums across the country was also found.

Perhaps Boston’s has no public subsidy because the Boston Globe did some real analysis of the economic return of a stadium.

The chart can be enlarged by clicking on it.

And, no, I didn’t vote for the new Bears Stadium when I was in the General Assembly.