The Costs Outweigh The Benefits

What does a mild-mannered farmer in Nebraska, a metropolitan fashionista in California, and a die-hard New York Yankees fan have in common? If I told you that all three helped pay for Yankee Stadium, you'd probably laugh at me before moving on to something else. The problem is that all three of these people have been paying for Yankee Stadium along with dozens of other stadiums across the United States thanks to billionaires crying poor and threatening to leave their current city for greener pastures.

I have been hammering away on cities who have listened to owners of sports franchises cry, whine, and moan about needing public funds for some time now ever since John Oliver dug into the hypocrisy and stupidity that surrounds using public funds for stadiums and arenas on HBO's Last Week Tonight in 2015. I ripped Calgary on several occasions about investing public funds into their new arena, and I'll likely go after the next owner who gets the city in which his team plays to bow before his will and dump public money into his shiny, new toy.

In a rather eye-opening publication on Literary Hub, Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson penned a fantastic piece "on the True Costs of Fandom" when it comes to the American public financing stadiums for billionaires entitled You're Paying for Sports Stadiums You Don't Even Go To. In this publication, they expose the fallacies of committing public funds in building arenas and stadiums because of the costs - both in the short long term - that it has on America and its citizens.

They write,

"From 2000 to 2014, the federal government lost $3.7 billion in revenue due to subsidies to sports teams building new stadiums, according to the Brookings Institution. These federal subsidies come in the form of tax-exempt municipal bonds. The federal tax exclusion for interest earned on state and local bonds dates back to the first US income tax established in 1913, when it applied to an array of private businesses. Since then, its application has been narrowed and specified several times, yet the financing of sports stadiums remains exempt."

Think about how much infrastructure and services $3.7 billion would get you if the federal US government hadn't given it to sports teams who wanted new buildings. Highways, national parks, and pile of other services might have the funding they need to continue to operate at and maintain a high standard, but, instead, this money as never realized thanks to interest not being paid on the bonds secured by the government to pay billionaires to build new stadiums.

"Everybody in the United States is foregoing tax revenues that could have been earned on the taxable bonds that alternatively would have to be used," Brad Humphreys, an economics professor at the University of West Virginia who specializes in stadium financing, told Luther and Davidson. "Everybody in the United States is providing some sort of subsidy for these private-use sports facilities."

Remember those three people off the top who had something in common? These taxable bonds that the government is handing out to billionaires means that the farmer in Nebraska, the fashionista in California, and the die-hard Yankees fan are all paying for the Steinbrenners to have their brand-new Yankee Stadium. That doesn't seem fair, does it?

Luther and Davidson make another good point when they write,

"State and local governments must carry most of the burden of financing stadiums. This comes in the form of property tax exemptions to teams or the more direct route: straight out of citizens' pockets in the form of increased general sales taxes, lotteries, and taxes on rental cars, hotels, restaurants, alcohol, and cigarettes."

It begs the question about why general public - most of whom won't be able to buy season tickets based on current pricing in most leagues - are still forced to foot the bill for the very stadium in which they'll only watch their local sports franchise a handful of times. How does this make any sense to anyone when it comes to being a sports fan in today's day and age?

We need to stop this practice. Civic pride in a team is one thing, but when millions of dollars in tax revenue is being abandoned because local billionaire wants his new stadium we need to really look at what's important to us. Sports will always be a civic pride issue as there hasn't been a single instance where a professional sports franchise or owner has built a hospital or paved new streets or built a school, yet we keep using money that we could use for those purposes to satiate the threats from billionaires.

Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson's article prove that the cost of fandom is truly astronomical when you consider everything we give up to have a new stadium in town.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!