Chester stadium: Two views

One reason people thrill to the prospect of pro soccer coming to Chester is the promise that a new stadium complex will generate a raft of jobs, spending and tax revenue - all told an astounding $1.7 billion in economic activity.

Or not.

"A fantasy figure," scoffed Rick Eckstein, a Villanova University professor and coauthor of Public Dollars, Private Stadiums: The Battle Over Building Sports Stadiums. "The numbers should be treated very, very skeptically."

Despite the dozens of new stadiums built or rising in communities across the United States, and despite the huge public subsidies they command, there's nearly universal agreement among economists that arenas produce practically no benefits to taxpayers - a view hotly disputed by the businessmen who seek funds and the government leaders who back them.

"The debate has intensified because the costs have escalated and these sports developments have become larger real-estate and entertainment plays," said David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California Sports Business Institute.

Now, that tension has come anew to the Philadelphia region, specifically to one of Pennsylvania's poorest cities, where Gov. Rendell has promised that a proposed $500 million stadium development will "change the face of Chester forever." He has pledged a pivotal $47 million in state funding that has supporters believing the city will land a Major League Soccer expansion team. A decision is expected soon.

The team would play at a $115 million, 18,500-seat stadium set near the Commodore Barry Bridge and surrounded by what sounds like riverfront paradise - $385 million in restaurants, stores, offices and townhouses. The development would have boat slips and new streets, even a supermarket. Artists' renderings show people jogging on a waterside promenade and strolling with shopping bags.

The prospective team owners, leading a St. Louis group in the contest to secure MLS's 16th team, predict a huge financial impact:

More than 2,600 temporary construction jobs and 800 permanent full-time jobs. About $19 million in annual tax revenue. An estimated $670 million in personal earnings and $335 million in taxes over time.

Those are giant numbers to a city where half the households get by on less than $25,000 a year.

And they leave sports economists shaking their heads. Whether it's Kansas City or Charlotte, Chicago or Chester, they say, the argument is always the same, and so is the result.