[reaganaut1]

Another example (universal health care being a much bigger one) of governments going beyond their proper roles and bankrupting themselves in the process.

[MonicaG]

Good thing Sacramento couldn’t put it together for a new Kings stadium. Seems like Arco Arena’s holding up just fine... and the Kings rock on in that humble venue.

[nathanbedford]

The New York Times, of all papers, citing example after example of Keynesian government stimulus failing. One can only wonder if Paul Krugman reads the articles in his own newspaper.

[Huck]

I have a simple rule of thumb that works pretty good. Whenever I get to vote on a new proposal of any kind that involves some of my money, I vote no.

A few years back in my town, they put a proposal on the ballot for a large sum of money to fix the boiler at the local elementary school. My fellow residents and I voted it down. There was squawking in the local paper, and a while later it came up for a vote again, and again we voted it down. Some months went by, until one day there was a story in the local paper that the town had "found" the money to do the school repairs.

My advice to anyone who will listen--always vote NO. Make them find the money, and if what they are proposing is truly necessary, they'll find it. But you may have to say no more than once.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

This “stadium building” stuff is just Socialism on Steroids....only it is done for owners who should have the money to it themselves

Here in Orlando....they ponied up most of the money to build the Magic a new arena. I guess the one just 20 yrs old was not good enough. Part of the new arena package was to include an arts center and a renovation of the Citrus Bowl stadium. The latter two may never get built, since the proposed tax revenue from tourism is not coming through.

Meanwhile, at UCF (Univ of Central Florida), they built a new stadium and arena on campus, without going to the taxpayers. The money is coming from booster donations and ticket sales. Imagine...the taxpayer funded school eschewing socialism.

More irony....FedEx Field (Washington Redskins) is actually one of the few privately-owned and funded stadiums...

Taxpayer funded sports venues do not bring in revenue....they do not create a lot of jobs....and are a big drain on taxpayers

[BluH2o]

Nowhere is the problem more acute than in Cincinnati

Lived in Cincinnati from 1992 'till 2009 so I was there during the run up to the stadium vote. The Cincinnati Enquirer and downtown big business all endorsed the stadium issue. Bogus studies, conducted by the University of Cincinnati & others, were all geared to show what a tremendous stimulus to the economy the stadiums would mean. 40 thousand new jobs would be created was one claim. Flashy brochures were distributed to every mailing address in Cincinnati extolling the virtues of funding and building the stadiums ... it would be a winner, no question. The cost estimated at $450 million (as I recall) would be easily covered by projected revenue increases and the half penny (a mere half penny we were told repeatedly) sales tax increase.
Well, as it turned out, the cost of the stadiums doubled, the city fathers reached over and grabbed their ankles for Mike Brown (owner of the Bengals) and the rest is history.

[dbrew2u]

I have found over the years that there are 2 things that most people believe is worth any amount of money,Sports & Hollywood. I know folks that will buy a ticket to a Football Game before they will pay rent. I’m afraid that we still live in a culture that there is no price to high to worship false idols.

[barkeep]

I am a Dallas Cowboys fan from way back, liked them before they were winners.

Disgusts me to listen to ESPN and others just gush over the new Jerry Jones Taxpayer Rip-off Memorial Stadium. Yes, it is lovely, probably the best in the league, and I would love it IF Billionaire Jones and company had paid for it.

[LS]

The Bengals' stadium is beautiful---but who wants to go downtown? It's dirty, dangerous, and there are all sorts of nice shopping malls in the 'burbs.

The day of the skyscraper downtown area where people "have to go shop" is long gone, and planners better figure it out. Phoenix, AZ, is a better approach. They put some money into the downtown area, with the Suns building and the convention center, but they encouraged the explosion of the suburbs of Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Glendale, Paradise Valley, etc. which all have FED Phoenix and kept it alive. I think the best a downtown can do any more is to be home to a variety of specialized niche restaurants, large-scale sporting events/conventions, and night clubs---but you have to guard to keep out the nudie bars and tatoo parlors, which in Phoenix's case went in large part to some unregulated county lands in the riverbed areas.

[Maine Mariner]

Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, wanted a new sports stadium in Seattle. He made it clear that if the city (King County?) did not build it for him, using taxpayers dollars, he would move the team to another city.
Of course the stadium was built.

All this happened during the dot.com boom during the 1990’s. In three or four days the value of Allen’s Microsoft stock holding increased so much that just from those 3 or 4 days of grain. He could have written a check for the entire cost of the new stadium.

[hoosier hick]

The article cites Phoenix and Columbus “struggling” to keep their NHL franchises. My question: where, exactly, would these teams move? Given the recent history of government tax breaks to lure teams, and the general state of the NHL, I think these teams should just go out of business....

hh

[Lorianne]

So-called “convention centers” are even worse.
Every po-dunk town want’s a “convention center” ... like who is going to have a convention there anyway.

If it is proported to be a profitable venture, then a private developer/owner would do it.

These things almost never make money ... that’s why they rook taxpayers into paying (and paying and paying) for them.

Government should not be in the business of business