I love NFL football but sometimes I hate the NFL. The Raiders will play 2 seasons more in Oakland, other than the Packers winning a SB in Ziggy's palace I would like to see the Superbowl Champion move to another city after winning it. Go Raiders 2018 Super Bowl Champion.
Am I the only one that gets irritated with public money funding sports stadiums for these EXTREMELY profitable sports franchises?
I would like nothing more than to see, Oakland playing in front of an empty stadium for the next two years.
What other businesses ask the taxpayers to pay for their facilities? They build billion dollar stadiums on the taxpayer's dime, then they raise the ticket prices to levels that exclude a majority of the population from attending the games and using the stadiums that they are paying for through their tax dollars. Do I blame the owners? Somewhat. They use fear of leaving to promote the idea that the public needs to pay for their stadiums. I also find fault with the elected officials that will gladly fork out millions of dollars to a sports franchise, but won't fix their infrastructure. In the cases where the public votes to allow this, I also blame those people as well. I understand why they vote in favor of using public funds, because they are being leveraged by the franchises and/or the public officials, but none the less they are also to blame. I just believe that the franchises would be able to fund their stadiums through their own profits, naming rights, sponsorship's and investors IF we didn't allow public funds to be used.
That's a product of having the stadium with the smallest seating capacity. Can't fit 78,000 in a stadium that seats 56,000.
Not allow public funds, as in a national LAW? Not very American. Pretty much every business that builds in a new city or state, is getting something from the governments. The benefit to the areas with professional teams clearly out weighs the investment. The Bucks are getting a new arena in Milwaukee, Income taxes collected from the players alone will offset that cost.
Actually I would feel like my statements are exactly American. The public supporting business through taxation seems pretty socialist to me. People being taxed for a luxury that they may never use seems pretty un-American to me. I never once said that the City doesn't benefit by having a sports franchise, but the money being used to fund these stadiums should not be coming out the citizens income. If you want to pass a use tax, or hotel tax then I would most likely support that since the people using the stadiums are the ones helping to fund them, but I am 100% against any type of income or sales tax paying for these sports stadiums. I love sports and watch them all the time. I would venture to say every franchise in the NFL is making over 50 Million dollars a year in profits. With those types of profit margins, they could easily pay for their own stadiums, and that tax money could be put to much better use.
What you say you would support is exactly what most of the stadiums/arenas do. The governments whether City, County, State are not just giving tax money to the teams. While not exactly, it is basically a Loan of sorts, the money given is Bonded and paid back through the increase in tax revenue of some sort. In Vegas, they increased the Hotel Tax to generate the tax revenue to repay the Bond. In Milwaukee for the Bucks, they are using the income tax from the Players salaries. I don't know of any stadium project where citizens income taxes were increased to pay for it. They all come from an increase in Tax revenue generated from the stadium..
Many of the stadiums build involve increase in sales tax including stadiums for the Cowboys, Colts, Broncos and others.
They are typically voted for by the residents of the area. Brown county residents voted for a 1/2% sales tax increase when the Packers renovated. For Dallas it was just in Arlington and also voted for by the residents. If they determine their city or county is better off who am I or anybody else to tell them they can't. can't just look and say. See they are paying higher taxes because of the sports team. All these areas are able to have better schools and roads and infrastructure far greater than the small amount the local tax payers agreed on.
Every city that decides they wont spend the money on a stadium will lose their team that is just a fact. There are a number of cities that are lined up waiting to throw public money to build a stadium because they know it is the only way they can get one.
Cabbala's got 10 year TIF to build in Rogers MN, many corporations get tax credits, infrastructure, etc to locate in an area. Also in the past the Metrodome actually more than paid for the cost of building the stadium. The stadium is not exclusive use to the NFL franchise. Plus who could afford to pay the taxes on a billion $ stadium with only 10 home dates at home. The franchises usually do not own the stadium so the municipalities own the stadium and the teams get a lease.
I understand how the system works, I'm just pointing out that I don't think ours the proper use of tax dollars when we have so many other critical issue that could be addressed. A tax credit is different than raising a sales tax where everyone is forced to pay more on everything they purchase. Again, if public funds were not available to allow these franchises to build billion dollar stadiums, the league's would still exist and my guess it's the ticket prices would still be affordable. Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk
Affordable tickets are a matter of priorities if you want to go to a game you will. Best scam I ever came up with was taking my son to Lambeau for his birthday. Had I decided to go to Lambeau with Packer fan friends and spent $250 a ticket to go it would be too much, bring moma's baby boy and dump the$ best tickets are not out of the question.
