Free Republic

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A poll shows the Minnesota Vikings strength on the playing field hasn’t helped the football team win fans of its push for a new, taxpayer-financed stadium. The Minnesota Public Radio/Humphrey Institute poll published Friday showed that a solid majority has no interest in seeing taxes used for a stadium. The poll of 701 adults found that 64 percent oppose the idea and 30 percent back it, with the rest undecided. The May 13-16 poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points. Vikings officials have been seeking taxpayer stadium help for...

Another baseball season is upon us. That means it's time to check the stats in Forbes' annual look at the always slightly fuzzy finances of Major League Baseball Inc., arguably America's most taxpayer-enhanced sport. This year, Forbes focuses on the Seattle Mariners, a small-market franchise that went a lousy 63 and 99 on the field last season but has quietly led the majors for five straight years in what counts most in pro sports -- team profits. The Mariners, says Forbes, are worth $414 million, which is fifth behind the mighty Yankees ($950 million), Red Sox ($563 million), Mets ($505...

A champion of sweatshop workers in the developing world, Kenneth Miller has spent the past three baseball seasons rattling consumers' consciences outside PNC Park. Those bobblehead dolls the fans clamor for, and a variety of other sports-related gee-gaws and apparel, are made in overseas sweatshops, according to Miller and other workers' advocates, including the National Labor Committee. The Pirates don't decide which factories will make the merchandise it sells. Major League Baseball hires companies to produce it for 30 teams. Those companies, such as Nike, New Era and Rawlings, contract with factories.

A GOP provision in an export-tax bill would permit new owners of pro sports franchises to write off the value of the team, which they couldn't do before. Tax experts say the 15-year write-off rule could add, on average, 5 percent to team values when they are sold. Big-time professional sports teams are privately owned companies that pay their marquee employees enormous sums of money to entertain fans in publicly subsidized stadiums that never pay for themselves. Those who care absolutely nothing about sports -- or even hate sports -- still pay taxes in support of these private enterprises. And...

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football League have asked a federal court judge to dismiss a $200 million antitrust suit, contending a Carrick man who filed it has no standing to challenge the public funding of new stadiums. The motion, filed Friday by attorney Michael J. Manzo of Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling, claims that plaintiff Robert C. Warnock, 42, cannot bring the complaint because he can't show damage to his business or property.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Play ball, tax free. A study by researchers at the University of Dayton concludes that large public subsidies for the construction of major league baseball stadiums are unnecessary. Economics professors Marc Poitras and Larry Hadley examined the 13 stadiums built between 1989 and 2001 and concluded teams would probably recover all or nearly all the cost of construction if the ballparks were built with private money instead of taxpayer money. "The bottom line is that these new stadiums generate sufficient revenue to pay for themselves," Hadley said...

<p>Colleges see no return — financial or competitive — from increased spending on athletics, according to an NCAA report to be released today. The findings from a two-year study of spending on college sports, touted by the NCAA as the most comprehensive of its kind, strike at the heart of conventional wisdom that bigger is better. Increased spending doesn't result in more victories or high-caliber applicants for admission, the report says.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The glut of taxpayer-financed sports facilities constructed throughout the 1990s did more than drain local coffers -- it dinged federal taxpayers as well. A report published in The Washington Post on Monday noted that, thanks to a loophole in the Internal Revenue Code, backers of local sports facilities have issued more than $6.3 billion in bonds that are exempt from federal taxes. The cost to the Treasury: as much as $500 million a year. "The advantage of tax-exempt bonds is that they allow cities, counties, stadium authorities and other public entities...

<p>Only 12 years ago, Memphis, Tenn., opened a $69 million arena, the Pyramid, that was supposed to satisfy generations of sports fans and invigorate the downtown district.</p> <p>Developers said it would attract a music hall of fame, a Hard Rock Cafe and a steady supply of visitors who would ride to the top of the arena, 321 feet above the banks of the Mississippi. The building would provide 19,000 seats for basketball and even more for stage shows. City boosters called the Pyramid "the ninth wonder of the world."</p>

<p>Shortly after the sun poked through the clouds at Mario Lemieux's celebrity golf tournament today, the host cast a few shadows over the Penguins' future in Pittsburgh.</p> <p>Lemieux, the team's owner and star, said he still hasn't decided whether he will play next year and expressed pessimism about the team's future in the city if it can't secure financial backing for a new $270 million arena.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The future has already begun. -- Rod Bryden They don't sell tickets to the past. -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn Here in the business gulag we ponder why a story of enterprise goes sour. So the workout commences on the Ottawa Senators, and Rod Bryden has little time to convince creditors that he's the entrepreneur who should get the nod to carry the team forward, albeit without the debt load that was arranged under his leadership. Here in the gulag, we turn a jaundiced eye to such tricks, though we do note that...

<p>JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- City leaders were trying to decide whether to renovate or demolish a stadium that was the site of Negro League games in 1945 featuring players such as Satchel Page and Jackie Robinson, and where Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig once swung for the fences.</p>

<p>Calling Mellon Arena "unique in the history of modern design," two historic-preservation groups yesterday nominated the eye-catching, silver- domed structure for a city historic designation.</p> <p>If City Council grants it that status, it would make it much harder to demolish the 41-year-old building in the lower Hill District.</p>