Posted on 09/22/2015 12:37:10 PM PDT by oh8eleven
The winners are the NFL’s 32 team owners, who managed to scam taxpayers out of $7 billion over the last 20 years to subsidize stadium construction and renovation schemes, according to a new report by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
That leaves taxpayers as the losers, forced to fork over their hard-earned money in a perverse corporate welfare scheme that amounts to welfare for billionaires.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Bread and Circuses, my FRiend.
Do you think Sunday afternoon in Buffalo or Green Bay is much different than it was in Rome back in the day?
Slightly less blood...
back in Rome.
Seattle taxpayers don’t have to worry. Seattle doesn’t have a team. ;)
You're talking about Terry Pegula and I want to ask you why you would say such a thing. He has been generous with his money here in Buffalo and has sparked a renaissance in the downtown area. He is no "Jerry Jones". He is an honest man. He has even said that there is no urgency to build a new stadium.
Here in Indianapolis we (thanks to former Democrat mayor Bart Peterson) are the biggest sports suckers.
Not only did the Colts and Pacers get free stadiums, but they get the profits from all the other events held in them like concerts and college games.
Nothing inspires the heart of a politician like the computer simulated view of the field from his club seats in the proposed new stadium.
Aren’t the taxpayers the ones who approve these subsidies? If so, there is nobody to blame but the majority who pass the funding expenditure.
How do you think they get to be billionaires,not by using their own money?
Trust me, if these people paid as much attention to politics as they do sports, the corrupt politicians who enable this kind of stuff would be in jail. But “the dimwits care” at election time and they’re not evil republicans, so just blame the NFL owners.
Cincinnati did much the same thing back in 1996 for Bengals owner Mike Brown. He was making veiled threats he would move the Bengals, probably to LA if he didn't get a new stadium (now Paul Brown stadium). The powers that be at City Hall reached over and grabbed their ankles. Hamilton County taxpayers got the shaft bigtime.
It’s not the cost of the stadiums that kills the taxpayers ... that’s just the wound.
The nasty infection that kills the taxpayers is the interest that is paid on the bonds to fund construction of the playgrounds. I’m quite sure numerous shenanigans are played to keep those loans alive for decades if not centuries. Hell, Three Rivers Stadium was nowhere near paid off when they demolished it.
They hyped up the fact that the stadiums here in Pittsburgh were to be constructed using “zero interest loans” from the state after taxpayers vetoed the initiative to use sales tax to build them (this was after we were force fed a 0.5% sales tax increase for a “Regional Renaissance Initiative” ... at the time, Pittsburgh’s 3rd failed renaissance).
The Steelers and Pirates each paid a small fraction of the costs of the playgrounds. Heinz Field might be used 20 times a year (I understand the offices are occupied year round, but it’s still a sick joke that taxpayers fund these toys).
The Pirates/PNC Park is a bigger joke ... the scummy owner won’t even buy players needed to win it all ... they might luck out this year, but they’ll have all sorts of excuses for the times they fail to sign top talent. He’ll continue to line his pockets and idiots will still fork over cash to keep his taxpayer funded company lining his pockets.
Finally, the Penguins got a free arena. This was after the University of Pittsburgh got a new state-of-the-art facility for basketball game shows. It would make more sense for taxpayers (assuming you believe that playgrounds are important) that Pitt and the Penguins share the facility ... nobody wanted to do that since that would mean control was split.
I can’t watch any sports with a straight face anymore. The amount of time, money, and emotion wasted on these frigging games is sickening. I see no difference between “The Price is Right” and “NFL” anymore. At least “The Price is Right” doesn’t pick money out of my pocket nor do they change the rules every year to make the game show easier to control for TV purposes.
I used to love listening to baseball on the radio ... these days, I couldn’t care less if the Pirates win or lose due to these stadium deals.
I do have to admit that it’d be funny if they knock the scummy Cubs out of the playoffs thus continuing their 100+ year tradition of World Series futility :-). If kicking players in the knees and injuring them for the season on purpose is part of baseball’s tradition, I hope to see the Cubs continue the 100+ year tradition of no World Series title for baseball’s perpetual losers ;-).
Same thing with Hoosier/RCA Dome here in Indy.
Multiple re-fis and 2nd mortages exist years after.
“The powers that be at City Hall reached over and grabbed their ankles. Hamilton County taxpayers got the shaft bigtime.”
The sad fact is the Big-Time sports team owners KNOW they can hold the cities as hostage.
Every Pol knows that if they don’t bend over for them, and they really do leave, they will be blamed for it, and their career is OVER, instantly. Look what happened in Baltimore after the Colts left, for instance.
From the pol’s point of view, they must bend over. And it’s not like they are spending THIER money, anyway.
1) All serious economic studies have shown that a major sports team is an economic loser for a city, unless the city gets to keep control of the concessions business. Otherwise, the traffic disruption and cost of added security is disproportionately born -- once again -- by the taxpayers.
2) Why is a team allowed to sell the name of a stadium that was built with other people's money? Seriously! How does that even work? That is a GD outrage. Heinz Field should be called "Fred Zarguna" stadium.
Love my Pirates, love my Steelers, have ever since my Dad took me to the 6th game of the World Series in 1960. But there really has to be a better way to do this.
“Three Rivers Stadium was nowhere near paid off when they demolished it.
Same thing with Hoosier/RCA Dome here in Indy.
Multiple re-fis and 2nd mortages exist years after.”
The Hoosier Dome itself was paid off, years ago. The Capital Improvements board mortgaged again to help pay for “Peterson’s Follies”, like the Convention Center remodel-redesign.
When Irsay came to them for a New Stadium, they didn’t even blink about spending $2 billion+ dollars, justifying it by saying that if they didn’t, they could lose the Firefighter’s convention.
As my Dad (RIP) used to snark: “nothing’s too good for the taxpayers”
My theory is that not having a team in Los Angeles is the most profitable thing to ever happen to the NFL. Now every team owner can threaten to move to LA if they don’t get a new stadium. The threat to move to Portland, Oregon, the next largest city to not have an NFL team nearby, wouldn’t be as frightening to get the politicians to open the taxpayers’ wallets.
You are absolutely correct.
This is slightly off topic, however, Mike Ditka is a Trump supporter. I live in Illinois, so I have great affection for Mike Ditka as former coach of our Super Bowl team. Those were great days that season.
What about all the tax revenue these teams generate. That is always left out.
As an aside to this thread, just to let people know how much costs have risen, think about this: the video board at Cowboys Stadium costs about what it cost to build Texas Stadium in 1971.
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