Billionaires have found one more wayto funnel
our tax dollars into their bank accounts:
Sports stadiums.
And if we don't play ball, they'll take our favorite teams away.
Ever notice how there never seems to be enough money
to build public infrastructure like mass transit lines and better schools.
And yet, when a multibillion dollar sports team demands
a new stadium, our local governments are happy to oblige.
A good example of this billionaire boondoggle
is the host of the 2023 Super Bowl:
State Farm Stadium.
That's where the Arizona Cardinals have played since 2006.
It was built after billionaire team owner Michael Bidwill and his family
spent years hinting that they would move the cards
out of Arizona if the team didn't get a new stadium.
Their blitz eventually worked with Arizona taxpayers and the city
of Glendale, paying over two thirds of the $455 million construction tab.
And State Farm Stadium is not unique.
It's part of a well-established playbook.
Just about every NFL franchise owner has a net worth of over
a billion dollars except for the Green Bay Packers,
who are publicly owned by half a million cheeseheads.
The same goes for many franchise owners in other sports.
Their fortunes don't just help them buy teams, but also gives them clout
- which they cash in when they want to get a great deal on new digs for their team.
Since 1990, franchises in major
North American sports leagues have intercepted upwards of
$30 billion worth of taxpayer funds from state and local governments to build stadiums.
And the funding itself is just the beginning of these sweetheart deals.
Sports teams often get big property tax breaks and reimbursements
on operating expenses like utilities and security on game days.
Most deals also let the owners keep the revenue from naming rights,
luxury box seats and concessions like the Atlanta Braves $150 hamburger.
Even worse, these deals often
put taxpayers on the hook for stadium maintenance and repairs.
We taxpayers are essentially paying for the homes
of our favorite sports teams, but we don't really own those homes.
We don't get to rent them out.
And we still have to buy expensive tickets to visit them.
Whenever these billionaire owners try to sell us on a shiny new stadium,
they claim it will spur economic growth from which we all benefit.
But numerous studies have shown that this is false.
As a University of Chicago economist aptly put it,
But what makes sports teams special is they're one of the few realms
of collective identity we have left.
Billionaires prey on the love that millions of fans have
for their favorite teams.
This brings us to the final step in the playbook
Obscenely rich owners threaten to - or actually do - rip teams
out of their communities if they don't get the subsidies they demand.
Just look at the Seattle Supersonics.
Starbucks founder Howard Schultz owned the NBA franchise
but failed to secure public funding to build a new stadium.
So the coffee magnate sold the team to another wealthy businessman
who moved it to Oklahoma.
Now that’ll leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
The most egregious part of how the system currently works
is that every dollar we spend building stadiums is a dollar
we aren't using for mass transit, hospitals, housing or schools.
We're underfunding public necessities
in order to funnel money to billionaires for something they could feasibly afford.
So instead of spending billions on extravagant stadiums, we should be
investing taxpayer money in things that improve the lives of everyone,
not just the bottom lines of profitable sports teams and their owners.
Because when it comes to stadium deals, the only winners
are billionaires.