On Nov. 13, UD Economics senior Jamie Allbriton won second place and a $500 scholarship in the 2020 Dallas-Area Business Economists (DABE) Arthur A. Smith Memorial contest for his research project titled "Globe Life Field: Grand Slam or Strikeout?".

Last semester, Jamie and his adviser, Dr. Kass, designed a thorough cost-benefit analysis on the new baseball stadium's economic impact in Arlington, Texas. Instead of putting their trust in consulting white papers, Jamie and Dr. Kass used modern techniques similar to studies conducted by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Using information from consulting reports commissioned by the City of Arlington, Jamie (along with Dr. Kass) found errors in messaging about the stadium's benefits during the lead up to the November 2016 stadium funding ballot measure. These errors include ignoring tax burdens on local citizens and businesses and other economic opportunities even if the Texas Rangers left Arlington.

When properly accounting for the financial gains and losses in a Net Present Value framework and running numerous potential economic scenarios, these researchers found only 8.3% of possible outcomes were net gains to the City of Arlington. On average, these scenarios predicted a net loss of around $80M.