Posted on 09/25/2017 8:39:34 AM PDT by TigerClaws
Louisiana State Rep. Kenny Havard expressed his desire to cut millions in state tax dollars, exemptions and credits allocated to the New Orleans Saints, the NFL and associated groups, the Advocate reported.
His Monday announcement came one day after a group of Saints players protested the national anthem before their Sunday game against the Panthers.
"The very reason (the Saints) have the privilege and opportunity to play professional football while being paid millions is because someone in uniform died protecting their right to do so. It is a disgrace to the men and women of this nation and state who have sacrificed so much."
Rep. Kenny Havard
Havard (R-St. Francisville) didn't specify the amount of state money that would be taken away from the Saints. But if his announcement were to follow through, it would affect team members, coaches and owners. According to a 2015 Forbes report, Saints owner Tom Benson -- who also owns the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans -- was "set to rake in an estimated $392 million from state subsidies through 2025." Can you tell the real news from the fake news? Take the quiz!
The same report also said that, during the Mercedes-Benz Superdome lease, "the state will pay Benson at least $198 million in increased revenue from the Superdome, $142 million in rental payments on property Benson owns, $10 million in bonuses for bringing the Super Bowl to New Orleans and $2.6 million in tax breaks. Benson will get another $40 million from private rent payments to a tower he bought as part of the deal."
"Disrespecting our national anthem and flag in the name of social injustice is the highest form of hypocrisy. Our free society made possible by our fighting men and women has made available free education, free lunch, housing and free healthcare and is now be considered socially unjust," Havard said. "It is time the taxpayers quit subsidizing protest on big boy playgrounds. I believe in the right to protest but, not at a taxpayer subsidized sporting event. Do it on your own time. There are plenty of disabled children, elderly and veterans in this state that would appreciate the money."
More than 200 National Football League players protested on Sunday following President Trump's comments and tweets suggesting that players who protest the anthem should be fired.
Roger Goodell makes $30 million a year.
Taxpayers paid $7 BILLION DOLLARS for stadiums around the country.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/how-the-nfl-fleeces-taxpayers/309448/
These people should NEVER have been subsidized like this to begin with!
Amen!
Stunned to see Brees and Payton sitting for the national anthem. Probably biggest surprise. Will never forgive.
Good grief….LA is a poor state. Its taxpayers deserve a tax cut if the state has these extra millions to spend on welfare for the man who makes billions as one of the biggest car dealers in the country. How does this happen?
Boom! Here we go.
No more subsidies, and certainly no new stadiums, for crony-capitalists who are engaged in the culture wars.
Brees has always been a left-winger.
NFL is non-profit and sucks billions off of taxpayers. Time to cut that sugar tit off.
Corruption, pure and simple.
New Orleans Satanists
Agreed, it makes the PBS funding look miniscule.
It’s a carefully crafted Marxist plot to deconstruct the culture.
Just to be clear, Drew Brees did NOT sit during the national anthem:
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/saints-qb-brees-standing-national-anthem-50065499
I fully agree that taxpayers should not have to subsidize sports stadiums and franchises, regardless of the national anthem issue, but moreso now. But let’s be careful about who we accuse of sitting.
No more taxpayer money to the NFL, Not For Long
Why is that State funding them in the first place?
This is another reason for the revolt against “Big Sports”.
Yep, let the billionaires build their own sports palaces.
In fact, we should get local and state governments out if the bribing business. Let them attract businesses by being good places to do business!
Why is Louisiana paying 400 million dollars to one man to keep his teams there....oh man cut the bleeding already. 400 million could do a lot to fix New Orleans levee systems for example!
It actually is.
Why the Anthem and statues?
Elites blame nationalism - love of USA - for Hillary’s loss. The goal is to make us ashamed of our country, our heroes, our past, and instead adopt the globalist agenda.
If people say their country is evil at its founding, why want to protect its borders?
If “we’re all Americans” (as Joe Biden said), then why bother with legal immigration or borders at all?
Then the American population can be killed off (non breeding, drugs from the cartels) and replaced with an easy to manipulate, victim mentality, browner population of surfs.
Agreed. It’s ridiculous.
I've always been of the impression (on the very rare occasions when the subject crossed my mind) that they were subsidized because they football is uniquely American, because it's virtually a symbol of America itself.
Even the NFL's most committed apologists are going to have a hard time explaining how a sport that's a "symbol of America" can also be a sport that makes a public show of dishonoring our flag and our National Anthem.
I expect them to try it though. I expect them to double down on that end too.
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