The expected benefits of a new Washington Commanders stadium being built in D.C., which were documented in a report the city issued last week, are basically honest and realistic, according to a University of Maryland economist who analyzed it.

The municipal research, which studied the economic and community impact of professional sports around D.C., includes an estimate of money a new NFL stadium and associated hotels and restaurants could generate to the city.

Broadly, it anticipated hosting an NFL club would provide thousands of employment to the area and result in $1.26 billion in income every year.

“They’re saying that they’re only going to get an incremental $26 million a year in revenue,” said Michael Faulkender, a professor of finance at the University of Maryland.

“That number seemed reasonable, when you think about sales taxes and some incremental income taxes from District residents that may be working.”

The municipal analysis forecasts that most of the people who attend events at a new NFL stadium would be coming from outside D.C. That premise, Faulkender added, is “one of the most intellectually honest things about the report.” And therefore, “it really is incremental money,” he remarked.

“The activity that you would get that is brought back into the District, that’s currently being done in Maryland, I thought were reasonable numbers,” Faulkender said.

While project advocates routinely put out assessments similar as the one D.C. commissioned, Faulkender rated the D.C. research more credible than the one extolling the potential benefits of an entertainment district in Virginia’s Potomac Yard neighborhood earlier this year.

That report, he said, was “assuming that a bunch of people would move to Virginia, who wouldn’t otherwise live in Virginia, and I found that to be a lot less credible.”

D.C.’s analysis also cites prospective effects of a stadium build, such as congestion and other traffic difficulties. It considers the impact that additional activity at surrounding restaurants and hotels could have on the area, which Faulkender said is viable, because people from Maryland or Virginia attending an event “might choose to make a night of it and stay in a hotel, whereas right now, you would not do that in Landover.

” The location of a potential new stadium, Faulkender said, plays a role in such revenue projections. “Will people hang around? Or will they scatter quickly afterwards?” he said.

“That’s, to me, the biggest question about how much beyond just the economic activity of the venue you would incorporate into the analysis.”

In its report, D.C. didn’t indicate how a new stadium would be paid for. Faulkender, however, said such evaluations are often used “to justify whether taxpayer dollars should go toward either some kind of tax abatements or some kind of direct cost-sharing on the construction of the facility.”