Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

The Public Funds Sports Teams, But Teams Won’t Fund Transit to Games

Fans pack Metro train after a Nationals game. Photo: Wikipedia
Fans pack Metro train after a Nationals game. Photo: Wikipedia
false

Professional sports stadiums put a strain on transportation networks. While good transit service to games can lessen the traffic burden and help everyone get to sports venues more easily, this often imposes additional costs on transit agencies. Despite all the public subsidies pro sports teams receive, they rarely help pay for this service.

It doesn’t have to be this way, says Richard Layman at Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space.

Layman reports that, of DC’s NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB teams, only the basketball and hockey arena has an agreement to pay WMATA for added transit service necessitated by games.

He writes:

The Washington Nationals have refused to put such an agreement in place, despite the city's preference that they do so and the fact that the city is paying hundreds of millions of dollars for the team's stadium. The city didn't put a provision for transit coverage in the contract so the Nationals, see no reason to do so.

The result, says Layman, is uneven transit service to and from games, which is frustrating for fans who can’t or don’t want to drive. It also puts the onus on WMATA to accommodate the teams -- which, as Layman notes, may already benefit from taxpayer subsidies.

Layman recommends that cities include “transportation demand management requirements” in stadium contracts, and zone for stadium construction only in areas already served by transit.

Of course, many communities are so eager to get a team that transit service and station adjacency ends up being, at best, an afterthought.

For example, the Atlanta Braves baseball team is moving out of the city to the suburbs, to the Galleria district of Cobb County, located at the intersection of I-285 and I-75, which is an area not served at all by MARTA's heavy rail transit system.

Elsewhere on the Network: Spacing Toronto tours rail stations that were built and never used, and TheCityFix looks at the growth of bike-share systems worldwide.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Friday Video: An ‘Oh the Urbanity’/Streetfilms Montréal Mashup

Find out why the City of a Hundred Steeples is so magnifique.

September 12, 2025

Sharing Is Caring for Friday’s Headlines

Young adults are driving less, and that may have something to do with the rise of shared micromobility devices.

September 12, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: This Boat is Doing Something Amazing for Transit!

Could a simple sale of old train cars inspire a new generation of transit fans down in Lima, Peru? It's all part of a very special edition of our podcast.

September 11, 2025

In Trade Deal With Trump, Europe Sells Out its Pedestrians

The new trade deal between the European Union and the U.S. means that pedestrians from Lisbon to Helsinki will be endangered by big, American-made trucks.

September 11, 2025

Thursday’s Headlines Are Day Trippers

It took me so long to find out one-way streets are bad, but I found out.

September 11, 2025

How Chicago Cyclists Are Protecting Immigrants During Trump’s ICE Crackdown

Bike riders are notifying residents who may be at risk of what Mayor Brandon Johnson recently called "militarized immigration enforcement without due process."

September 10, 2025
See all posts