Welcome to Spaceport USA!

The way people have been talking, it's as if spaceports are suddenly popping up on the American horizon like dandelions after a rainstorm in April.
Wisconsin, Florida, Oklahoma, California and New Mexico have all been in the news lately, announcing plans to pursue the investment of state funds in the development of private spaceports. Each claims the burgeoning "Space Tourism" industry will eventually provide jobs, businesses and tax revenue to states that make the initial investment.
Florida has plans for multiple private structures, plus Cape Canaveral, so let's hope the benefits of this not-even-fledgling (nobody has made a single penny, yet) industry come sooner rather than later.
But all this talk of new development and interest in space technology may be slightly misleading, however, because the United States had a wealth of spaceports before the space-tourism industry was even a dream. In fact, currently the US is crawling with sites to launch just about any kind of rocket, spaceship or experimental aircraft you can imagine.

As we begin the journey from Earth-bound life to being a Spacefaring economy, it's important we not put the cart before the horse. We can't just pin our hopes, dreams and valuable investment dollars on every crazy rocket-scientist who promises they can do it faster, better and cheaper.
Let's see the proof inside the pudding; You've shown me page after page of successful computer simulations, now build one and let's see it fly.
I realize it takes a substantial investment on the part of the designer, millions of dollars in fact, and that this money needs to have a return-on-investment high enough to warrant its risk. But, those risks are associated with successfully launching a craft and bringing it home, not establishing an industry.
How do we know what form this new industry will take? How do we know what type of launch and recovery system it will use? What type of fuel? How many ships will there be? How many will last, how many will fade away? How many spaceship companies can be supported by the people with enough disposable income to book a flight?
And before you attempt to answer any of those questions, consider this:
Currently teams are working to develop a Space Elevator. Even NASA believes the idea has merit. Were this to happen in the next decade, which is part of the plan, then spacecraft design would likely shift to things that don't require a ground-based launch.
They'll only need to build ships that are space-worthy, able to propel themselves through the vacuum, not break free from Earth's gravity. That's a complete paradigm shift from what we are doing now.
Who will use all the spaceports then? Will everyone switch to the new technology? Will we need so many spaceports, in so many places?
With that in mind, it might be wise for every politician eager to build a new spaceport to slow down, take a deep breath and see what happens in the next few years.
We already have an abundance of places to launch the next generation of space ships. What we really need now are the ships themselves....