Displaced Spending

Voters in the Kansas City area defeated a tax that would have provided funds to maintain both Arrowhead Stadium and Royals Stadium. As one would expect, voters from Jackson County, Mo. passed the measure (the stadiums are in Jackson county) and voters in Clay and Platte Counties in Missouri (north of the Missouri River) and Wyandotte and Johnson Counties in Kansas voted it down.

George Brett, former Royal and Hall of Famer, is not happy. Here is a quote from a Kansas City Star article on the failed Bistate Tax:

“It's really time Johnson County stepped into this and started paying for it. Half of the people that go to the games are from Johnson County. And how long has Jackson County been going alone on this? Over 30 years?”

Maybe the reason why Johnson County doesn’t want to pay is because those people are *leaving* Johnson County and going to Jackson County. The spending by Johnson County residents on the Chiefs and Royals represents displaced spending from that county. The Chiefs and the Royals drain some spending from the Johnson County area and the Chiefs and Royals want them to buck up to maintain the stadiums too?