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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – The Las Vegas A’s, and the Kansas City Royals had better hurry. They’re the latest baseball teams that are working on new stadium deals.
And now Congress is debating a bill that would block public funding for new sports stadiums. It would ban the issuing of tax free municipal bonds. Amen to that.
Even small market sports teams are owned by billionaires. In what other business do taxpayers fund the place of business for a private enterprise? (We’ll delve into taxpayer funding public broadcasting tomorrow.) And these billionaire sports moguls have the nerve to suggest that they’ll move somewhere else if their current home city won’t open up their coffers.
The Oakland A’s left because the liberals in that town demanded too much, and because, fundamentally, the Bay Area isn’t big enough to support two baseball teams. Las Vegas was willing to pay, Oakland wasn’t.
Some of these big-league stick-ups are more egregious. Brewers owner Mark Antonassio, with a net worth of $700-million, got Wisconsin and Milwaukee taxpayers to foot the bill for the latest improvements at American Family Field. So bad is the deal for Wisconsin taxpayers that the improvements were written into the lease. The last round of renovations at then-Miller Park included the installation of new scoreboards, which the team sells advertising for – and keeps the money.
The top ten baseball owners are all billionaires. Eight of their teams, the Mets, Yankees, Tigers, Twins, Guardians, Nationals, Braves, and Giants, play in taxpayer-built ballparks.
There are two football teams that are playing the taxpayer hold-up game: The Chiefs threaten to move from Missouri to suburban Kansas after voters rejected a bond issue. The Bengals, whose stadium is only 25 years old, now demand $350-million in taxpayer renovations or they’ll move.
Owners and their leagues will argue that stadiums are drivers of economic growth. That argument doesn’t work for a football team. The stadium in Cincinnati hosts 10 NFL games a season, and five more college games. Other times, it sits empty.
If stadiums are such money-making machines, why aren’t more teams following the Jerry Jones model. The Dallas Cowboys owner spent his own money to build the finest football stadium in the country. When the Cowboys aren’t playing, he collects all the profits from the motocross and Taylor Swift concerts. Other owners, put up or shut up. If it’s such a great deal – build your stadium yourself.
Chris Conley
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