A new wave of stadium-building is busting budgets in America

The devotee’s worry—the loss of a beloved team—is easy to understand. From a national perspective, the worry is different. Whether the Royals end up staying in Missouri or moving, one outcome seems all but assured: taxpayers somewhere will end up footing much of the bill for their new stadium. Virtually every new professional sports venue in America is built with public funds. That has been true for decades, but the subsidies are only growing, even as evidence piles up that they are almost always lousy investments.