Huffington Post - Taxpayers have spent nearly $3 billion on the 16 stadiums that will host NFL games during the season's opening weekend, according to figures in a new analysis from the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a Washington, D.C-based conservative nonprofit group.
All told, 29 of the NFL's 31 stadiums have received public funds for construction or renovation. In the last two decades, the analysis found, taxpayers across the country have spent nearly $7 billion on stadiums for a league that surpassed $10 billion in revenue last season.
"Unfortunately, beneath all of the glitz and glamour, these venues are nothing more than monuments to corporate welfare and taxpayer handouts," David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said in a press release. "These stadiums have been built on the backs of taxpayers who had no or little say in the matter and in many cases have benefitted little or not at all.”
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Prime offender: Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen, net worth $17bn, who soaked the public for a $430 million stadium. In contrast the previous owner of the Mariners, ex-Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi, not a baseball fan, was so appreciative of Seattle hosting Nintendo headquarters that in 1992 he bought the team to keep it from moving. If I recall correctly, he later offered to donate his ownership share to the city, but MLB shut that down.
We know stadiums are a waste of money; if they were profitable, the rich wouldn't let public funding anywhere near them.
In Providence RI we are resisting very strongly propposals to give a subsidy to a new batch of millionaire owners who want to move the AAA baseball team 5 miles to the Providence waterfront and steal a public park. The public is like 98% against this, but the politicians are still palying games. Letters to governor were 500 to 9 against the proposal so really 98%. To make it more interesting several of the very rich white boys are the retired heads of BIG IMPORTANT businesses that screwed RI by leaving town just cause big business likes to play those games.
Many of us hope the team is forced to stay where it is in a really cool stadium in Pawtucket. But we are also even more opposed to subsidy. I like asking how anyone can call themselves a capitalist if they always have their hand out for a handout?
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