Posted on 02/12/2023 8:43:43 AM PST by george76
Whether you love or hate football, this is outrageous.
...
Nearly 100 million people will watch this year’s Super Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona. But most viewers will never know about a disturbing bit of backstory to this year’s event—how the NFL tried to collude with a local government to attack free speech.
A Phoenix city ordinance, likely lobbied for by the league, would have required local property owners to get the NFL’s approval for any advertisement they wanted to put up on properties in the downtown area. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the city dubbed this nearly two square mile area a “clean zone” and would’ve required business owners to get permits to display “posters, flyers, banners, pennants, flags, window paintings and even balloons” from January 15 to February 19. As a condition of that permit, they’d need to get permission from the NFL or Arizona’s Super Bowl Host Committee.
The idea was to give the NFL the ability to more closely control advertising in the area while tourism spikes for the event. For example, they could block anyone from displaying Coke ads, since the league formally partners with Pepsi.
FIRE blasted this measure as a “dystopian rule that violates the First Amendment.” Maricopa County Judge Bradley Astrowsky evidently agrees. He just heard a case brought by a local business owner who challenged the ordinance and said, “The city of Phoenix is letting the NFL decide what I can and cannot say on my own property. That’s not right.”
After hearing the case, the judge struck down the city’s ordinance on February 2 and called it “an unconstitutional delegation of government power” to a private entity.
Good riddance....
These kinds of laws are not new and have cropped up in localities that hosted past Super Bowls as well. But they’re absurd. The NFL has no right to control what other people can do on their properties. And local governments should be in the business of protecting the rights of their constituents, not catering to corporate interests and granting them special privileges in the law.
That’s crony capitalism at its very worst. And, unfortunately, it’s not the only way the government does special favors for the NFL. For example, many NFL teams receive billions in special tax exemptions and subsidies from local governments that force working taxpayers to subsidize a $17-billion-dollar sports league.
Whether you love or hate football, regardless, this is outrageous. It shouldn’t be too much to ask that the NFL pays its own way and plays by the same rules as everyone else.
The NFL’s rules about who can say the word “Super Bowl” is really stupid.
= = =
I just read the thread about where to pee when the urinals are covered with trash bags.
How about in a Super Bowl?
Given that the game is actually in Glendale, a Phoenix declared “clean zone” would be no where near the game, or probably the team hotels, so I have serious doubts the NFL had anything to do with it.
And, they’re going to sing the “black national anthem” before the start of the game. They can GFT!
Thank goodness there’s some sense left in our country. Not much, but it’s good to see it pop up now and then.
Especially so since there was prior art. (News media called it the “Super Bowl” before the NFL did).
This reached the level of idiocy some years ago when the NCAA Final Four was held at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in northern New Jersey. American Airlines had some kind of sponsorship deal with the NCAA, and yet the Final Four was going to be held at Continental Airlines Arena in the complex. So the NCAA and their network affiliate had some kind of arrangement where the arena would only be called "the Meadowlands Arena" during the TV broadcasts.
Just goes to show you how money ruins sports in so many ways.
Having dealt with the NCAA at D2 and D3 National championships…I will tell you that I would have rather dealt with the mafia.
I watched the first part of last weeks NFC championship game. Most white players had their hand over their heart during the national Anthem. Many of the minority players just stood with an angry scowl on their face!
And I saw another article on fR that said NFL will play the “black” national anthem! WTF is that?
It would be nice to see all the non-black people leave during that part.
Ah, I call that the "resting perpetual victim face".
“ I watched the first part of last weeks NFC championship game. Most white players had their hand over their heart during the national Anthem. Many of the minority players just stood with an angry scowl on their face!”
Reports are they’re having a “Black National Anthem” tonight
I know I won’t have free speech at the Super Bowl party when I want to say how divisive that is. Or how our national anthem represents the constitution which condemns racism.
Now when the SB is here in DFW, they refer to it as “North Texas”, just as now Miami is “South Florida”.
How much will the NFL pay those affected businesses to comply? If a business already has an advertising agreement and the NFL what’s it stopped then whip out the checkbook boys. It’s that simple.
I want the original “White Jake” back for State Farm commercials before they went racism via “Affirmative Action”.
A Phoenix city ordinance... would have required local property owners to get the NFL’s approval for any advertisement they wanted to put up on properties in the downtown area... For example, they could block anyone from displaying Coke ads, since the league formally partners with Pepsi... After hearing the case, the judge struck down the city’s ordinance on February 2 and called it “an unconstitutional delegation of government power” to a private entity.
Same here, as if I needed any more reasons.
God save Arizona—and make her free and great again!!!!
Hoping the NFL never comes to our state. We don’t need any more taxes, especially to support something like this. Just paying outrageous ticket prices is support enough, but no doubt some wealthy people (or some who think they are wealthy) will pay good money to travel out of state & pay good money to attend this overblown event. These same folks would never pay this much to attend something that was truly worthwhile. I realize that some WOULD consider attending a Superbowl game a truly worthwhile once in a lifetime event & would allow if that’s their prerogative.
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