Last summer’s announcement that Grand Rapids will be home to a new, taxpayer subsidized, soccer stadium is one of such projects recently identified as unlikely to produce the 450 jobs promised by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

According to the MCPP, Michigan taxpayers will fork out $252 million for the new soccer stadium in Grand Rapids as part of a larger redevelopment plan along the riverfront.

Michigan and Kent County will commit at least $252 million to the project, which includes various public-private partnerships. Multiple mixed-use developments to enhance Grand Rapids’ riverfront will cost $700 million overall.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

The stadium is part of a larger redevelopment plan to add housing, parking, greenspace, an amphitheater, and a riverwalk in downtown Grand Rapids. Taxpayers and hotel guests will primarily fund the stadium, which officials expect to create 250 jobs.

However, a recent study by James Hohman, MCPP fiscal policy director,, found that taxpayer subsidies pitched as a way to create jobs almost always fail to deliver.

“Michigan has tried handouts,” Hohman wrote in this Mackinac Center blog. “They don’t work.”

In August, the Michigan Strategic Fund board approved support for multiple mixed-use development projects in Grand Rapids, according to a news release from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

The proposed Transformational Brownfield Plan incentive package requested by developer Grand Action 2.0 and the City of Grand Rapids Brownfield Redevelopment Authority totals about $252.3 million.

Work on the Acrisure Amphitheater, along Market Street west of the Grand River, is already under construction and expected to be completed in 2026, according to FOX17online.com, which also mentions the soccer stadium.

The amphitheater project, described as “a world-class entertainment center,” will seat around 12,000 and have 300 parking spaces built in. According to the news release, a publicly owned riverwalk between the Acrisure Amphitheater and the Grand River will include a paved trail for walking, running, and cycling and public green space along the riverbank.

The stadium development has been touted as an economic driver and destination venue. The proposal includes a 134,500-square-foot, 8,500-seat soccer stadium located west of downtown, plus an 18-story, mixed-use commercial building and parking garage to be constructed to the north of the stadium known as The Stadium District Tower, the release states.

The soccer stadium will be home to the only team in a major professional sports league in Grand Rapids. The facility will include a full-size soccer pitch to support national and international matches, according to the news release.

In April, Whitmer signed House Bill 5048, a bipartisan bill that would allow Grand Rapids to create a 2% hotel excise tax, according to the Michigan Legislature.

Kent County already had a 5% excise tax on its lodging industry. In August, voters narrowly approved an increase to 8%, which will bring in another $8 million, according to this WOODTV.com report.

In August, Kent County commissioners approved changes to the hotel tax ordinance to add aquariums and sports complexes. The new tax takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.

“I voted no on raising the tax because in my view, the parameters for how the revenue from the tax would be used was not and is not in the public interest,” stated Ivan Diaz, a Kent County commissioner, in this CapCon report.

A sports venue is a questionable use of taxpayer funds, said Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton Township, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, in the CapCon article.

The Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention and Arena Authority, which oversees DeVos Place, DeVos Performance Hall, and Van Andel Arena, will also own and operate the soccer stadium. According to MLive.com, officials revealed the name Amway Stadium after Amway pledged $33 million for the project.

According to a Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy report, Grand Action 2.0 poses several conflicts of interest. It is essentially run by the DeVos family. The DDA, which approved using public tax money for the project, has a DeVos family operative on that unelected board.

“Lastly, it is ironic that a $33 million pledge by the Amway corporation, which is a multi-billion-dollar global corporation, is only one-third of the amount that taxpayers are contributing, even though the public had no say in the use of the $100 million that Kent County and Grand Rapids approved,” GRIID.org states.

In addition, the state has spent $22.7 billion in business subsidies since 2000, but it’s not paying off. Most of the money funded the auto industry, according to Hohman. Despite that, Michigan lost 145,600 of the 315,000 auto industry jobs in 2000.