Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Multi-Billion Dollar Stadiums: The Seen vs. the Horrid Unseen
Real Clear Markets.com ^ | Sep 17, 2017 | Allan Golombek

Posted on 09/27/2017 7:31:59 AM PDT by KeyLargo

Multi-Billion Dollar Stadiums: The Seen vs. the Horrid Unseen

By Allan Golombek September 27, 2017

In 1995, the Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers to help build a new stadium. After 20 years in the Gateway City, the Rams moved right back where they came from – leaving the people of St. Louis and Missouri stuck with a $6 million a year tab to pay for an empty football field. American taxpayers spend billions of dollars a year to lure professional sports teams from one place to another in one of the most expensive shell games in history.

At least Roman Emperors provided bread. Modern-day politicians are spending a fortune in public funds to lure circuses. Over the past few years, U.S politicians have spent about $10 billion to $12 billion subsidizing sports stadiums, according to academic studies. And the pace of stadium construction is gaining speed. From 2011-2016, six stadiums were completed. Over just the next three years, 12 more are scheduled to be. Is it worth the cost?

It is easy see the benefits of a sports franchise – large-scale construction, stadium jobs, increased consumer spending at local restaurants, bars and hotels. New and improved stadiums occupied by a major-league team have a multiplier effect, spurring consumer spending on food, drinks, and parking. They also stimulate nearby development. But the stadium construction jobs are short-lived. Jobs for ushers and concessionaires don’t pay well and last only part of the year. And how much development is actually drawn away from other parts of the city?

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antiamericanism; budget; corruption; economy; flag; fraud; govtabuse; mediabias; nfl; nflstadiums; nflsubsidy; nfltaxpayers; players; scandals; sports; stadiums; taxes; taxpayers; trump
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

1 posted on 09/27/2017 7:31:59 AM PDT by KeyLargo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

Great website that discusses this topic in depth:

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/


2 posted on 09/27/2017 7:35:45 AM PDT by cgbg (Hidden behind the social justice warrior mask is corruption and sexual deviance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

“Jobs for ushers and concessionaires don’t pay well”

I guess they don’t get a cut of the $10 beers and $5 waters.


3 posted on 09/27/2017 7:37:24 AM PDT by V_TWIN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

Trump needs to ban ANY taxpayer monies to build stadiums for professional sport teams.

And remove the anti-trust exemption of the NFL.


4 posted on 09/27/2017 7:41:33 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

Yep.

Circuses.

And the clowns have numbers on their shirts.


5 posted on 09/27/2017 7:45:21 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cgbg
Over the past few years, U.S politicians have spent about $10 billion to $12 billion subsidizing sports stadiums, according to academic studies...and then the ungrateful beneficiaries of those tax dollars - the spoiled sports stars - protest because they're oppressed in America - bad enough they don't understand they're no where near being oppressed, they don't even understand the special privileges they're receiving.....
6 posted on 09/27/2017 7:46:56 AM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

Stadiums are corruption writ large. CTE is brain damage writ large. These are the real issues that the NFL is kneeling to ignore.


7 posted on 09/27/2017 7:47:31 AM PDT by samtheman (As an oil exporter, why would the Russians prefer Trump to Hillary? (Get it or be stupid.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueunicorn6

8 posted on 09/27/2017 7:50:00 AM PDT by KeyLargo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

The future for No Fans Left, aka the former NFL!

Coming soon to a National Felon Stadium near to all of us!

9 posted on 09/27/2017 7:50:32 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Free people stand proudly! Slaves cower and knell before their masters!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cgbg

10 posted on 09/27/2017 7:53:46 AM PDT by seawolf101 (Member LES DEPLORABLES)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo
Is it worth the cost?

Of course it is. Where else can you go to see pampered, exorbitantly paid leftist anti-American tattooed thugs disrespecting America and all those that gave the ultimate sacrifice so they could throw a ball around? If we didn't have these stadiums, we would miss that.

11 posted on 09/27/2017 8:02:25 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Intolerant in NJ

Field of Schemes

How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit, Revised and Expanded Edition Neil deMause and Joanna Cagan

About the Book

Field of Schemes is a play-by-play account of how the drive for new sports stadiums and arenas drains $2 billion a year from public treasuries for the sake of private profit. While the millionaires who own sports franchises have seen the value of their assets soar under this scheme, taxpayers, urban residents, and sports fans have all come out losers, forced to pay both higher taxes and higher ticket prices for seats that, thanks to the layers of luxury seating that typify new stadiums, usually offer a worse view of the action.

The stories in Field of Schemes, from Baltimore to Cleveland and Minneapolis to Seattle and dozens of places in between, tell of the sports-team owners who use their money and their political muscle to get their way, and of the stories of spirited local groups—like Detroit’s Tiger Stadium Fan Club and Boston’s Save Fenway Park!—that have fought to save the games we love and the public dollars our cities need.

This revised and expanded edition features the first comprehensive reporting on the recent stadium battles in Washington DC, New York City, and Boston as well as updates on how cities have fared with the first wave of new stadiums built in recent years.

12 posted on 09/27/2017 8:02:27 AM PDT by KeyLargo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: ProtectOurFreedom

13 posted on 09/27/2017 8:04:40 AM PDT by KeyLargo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: 2banana
"Trump needs to ban ANY taxpayer monies to build stadiums for professional sport teams."

Trump has no power over what states spend or what they choose to spend it on.

14 posted on 09/27/2017 8:04:51 AM PDT by DannyTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Grampa Dave

15 posted on 09/27/2017 8:06:06 AM PDT by KeyLargo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: DannyTN

...and it’s well and good he doesn’t. States, counties, cities, and municipalities can decide on their own where to spend their money (as long as the feds don’t ever bail them out).

It’s ridiculous to even suggest Trump should ban spending taxpayer money on stadiums. That’s “supreme leader” NORKlandia statist control territory.


16 posted on 09/27/2017 8:10:01 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: samtheman

Richest Nfl Players

Superstar athletes in the National Football League not only lead their teams to success but also earn a hefty paycheck while doing so. Although the average NFL salary is among the lowest ($2.1 million) among the four major sports organizations in the U.S. (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA), elite football players still make more money than athletes in other leagues. So how much do these gridiron greats earn? We thought you might ask.

To construct a proper ranking, we collected data from Spotrac.com, which featured the career base salaries and signing bonuses over the past three years for each player currently active in the NFL. We used this information to rank players based on their current team’s respective home state location and their career cash earnings. States that do not have a home team were excluded from our study.

Read on to see which of the NFL’s top athletes are cashing in the biggest checks.
Top Money Ballers

https://www.casino.org/richest-nfl-players/


17 posted on 09/27/2017 8:10:08 AM PDT by KeyLargo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: DannyTN

“Trump has no power over what states spend or what they choose to spend it on.”

Oh, really?

Brookings Now
Top 10 biggest federal subsidies for pro stadiums (Hint: the Yankees are #1)
Eric Bull
Friday, September 9, 2016

It’s no secret that private, professional sports stadiums are increasingly built with taxpayer dollars. Different experts have estimated the total stadium bill from
$10 billion to $12 billion in recent years.

Unsurprisingly, adding up the numbers can be tricky business. Stadium deals come in many forms and often include a mix of state, local, and federal subsidies in the form of land, infrastructure improvements, cash payments, tax-free municipal bonds, and more.

It’s the last one, tax-free municipal bonds, on which Ted Gayer, Austin Drukker, and Alexander Gold have focused their research. In a new paper from Economic Studies at Brookings, “Tax-Exempt Municipal Bonds and the Financing of Professional Sports Stadiums,” they take a comprehensive look at the federal side of stadium subsidies. They find that since 2000 alone, federal taxpayers have footed $3.2 billion toward private sports stadiums through subsidies in the form of tax-exempt municipal bonds. The amount of revenue the federal government loses gets even bigger—$3.7 billion—when the additional tax benefits that the high-income bond holders receive are taken into account.

A simpler way to look at it: Working families in Alaska are seeing their tax dollars go toward Yankee Stadium, a private stadium for a team valued at $3.4 billion located over 4,000 miles away. But as you can see in the list below, if you’re a sports fan in New York, Houston, or Cincinnati, you’re getting a pretty good deal.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2016/09/09/top-10-biggest-federal-subsidies-for-pro-stadiums-hint-the-yankees-are-1/


18 posted on 09/27/2017 8:14:07 AM PDT by KeyLargo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo
At least Roman Emperors provided bread... Over the past few years, U.S politicians have spent about $10 billion to $12 billion subsidizing sports stadiums...

To add insult to injury cities stick taxpayers with 98% of the cost of Stadiums then GIVE THE NAMING RIGHTS TO CORPORATIONS WHO CONTRIBUTE A DAMN 2% OF THE COSTS.

19 posted on 09/27/2017 8:14:32 AM PDT by GOPJ (What's next? Burning the US Flag on the sideline of professional sports games?! freeper AzJoe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2banana
"Trump needs to ban ANY taxpayer monies to build stadiums for professional sport teams."
20 posted on 09/27/2017 8:15:29 AM PDT by KeyLargo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson