Posted on 09/26/2017 3:40:03 PM PDT by ForYourChildren
The National Football League is now plunged into politics as players throughout the sport kneel for the national anthem and President Donald Trump continues to rebuke them publicly.
Undoubtedly, the situation has left many fans and non-fans of the league conflicted or angry.
This fiasco may, however, open the eyes of the public to a serious and generally unchecked issue: billionaire NFL owners sponging enormous amounts of money from taxpayers through crony capitalist schemes.
The fact is that a business that raked in $14 billion in revenue in 2016 is heavily subsidized by local, state, and federal money based on dubious claims about stimulating the economy.
The problem is rampant.
One report on Watchdog.org said that over the past two decades, the NFL has raked in about $7 billion of taxpayer money to spend on stadium renovation and building.
Another study from the Brookings Institution showed that federal taxpayers have subsidized the construction of 36 stadiums at a cost of over $3.2 billion since 2000.
{..snip..}
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
See the article for a lot of links and more detail.
I think that will come to an abrupt end. It’d be nice to retroactively tax the teams for the stadiums and whatever other deals they received from WE THE PEOPLE.
about $8.2 million per player (~ 1700)
Odd that a bunch of subliterate sociopaths are worth this much
And now we have the great opportunity to end this theft from taxpayers.
For acting like a bunch of virtue signalling PC not sees they may have to deal with a bigger trick bag than loosing their fan base. To quote Dirty Harry, “what a helluva price to pay for being stylish”.
I posted this on another thread. I would think that the cities must have a contract with the teams since tax payer monies is used to build the stadiums. Since they are all NFL teams, and the NFL has strict rules, there should be an expectation that the rules are adhered to. I remember the President saying he is very good at using a fine tooth comb to look over contracts so he can renegotiate. Why don’t these cities tell the teams to clean up their act, or they will demand to take another look at the contract. Even in liberal cities, demanding that ticket prices get more in line with the average tax payer earnings would get a lot of people on board. Not to mention parking and concessions. What can the teams do, threaten to move to another city and talk their tax payers to subsidize them? I don’t think that will work anymore.
Wrong choice of words. The author is confused. There is nothing capitalist about it. It is pure 100% Corporatism/Mercantilism, the arch enemy of capitalism.]
One reason we lose is we lose our own language.
They do and those contracts are highly favorable to the Franchise Holder.
Pretty much every penny generated by the stadium ends up in their pocket.
Why don’t these cities tell the teams to clean up their act, or they will demand to take another look at the contract…What can the teams do, threaten to move to another city and talk their tax payers to subsidize them?
Yes.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravins.
The Browns owner wanted a new stadium and Cleveland refused because they didn’t have the money.
The Browns broke a 10 year contract to stay in the city and moved to Baltimore which built them a new stadium to get them to move.
Here ya go...
And the NFL is looting the tax payers to the tune of billions?
Gezzuz...Insult to injury...
CHARGE STADIUM RENT!
SPEND IT ON INFRASTRACTURE.
Give the money to highway expansion since stadiums ruin a city’s traffic flow.
To me a key question is what percentage of net profits comes from foreign countries.
Follow the money, always.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravins.
I looked up the move and it looks like it was announced in 1995! I think in a little over 2 decades the political climate has changed a lot. Why not give the taxpayers another bite at the apple and decide if they want to keep these money grubbing elitists in the cash? I don’t know of any rich liberal cities they can flee to anymore, we know what happens to liberal cities, they rot. So where are they going to go?
Put all these stadiums up for sale to the highest bidder.
Tax the purchaser at standard, regular rates.
Condemn and destroy any stadium that doesn’t sell and ensure those that do are kept safe and clean with regular inspections.
All NFL and NBA facilities.
You well know that just because they don’t have the money doesn’t mean that they won’t spend the money.
Cleveland didn’t have the money to build a new stadium when they got the new Browns franchise.
They went to Uncle Sam and increased the bed tax ( and other taxes I don’t remember).
1995 is not that long ago for me. ;)
Shut down the teams.
Tear down the stadiums.
Build Section 8 housing in their place.
I think college football is going to be the big winner here. They need a playoff system that is similar to NFL and they will have the whole package.
So what, let them go! These idiot teams have gone so far as to lose Rush Limbaugh. All of this wasn’t over just any one thing, the satanic halftime shows, the corrupt players getting the slightest slap on the wrist for major crimes Either the Conservative movement puts their money where their mouth is, or they don’t. Time to man up.
The NFL’s Future in Europe
Jenny Vrentas
Sports Illustrated
Friday July 24th, 2015
https://www.si.com/mmqb/2015/07/24/nfl-future-europe
Inside the NFL’s Quest to Become a Truly Global League
Bryan Gardiner
Wired
01.06.2016
https://www.wired.com/2016/01/inside-the-nfls-quest-to-build-a-truly-global-league/
The NFL has not gotten a dime out of me since the Browns left Cleveland. So I doubt that my absence at the games will be a great hardship for them.
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