Thursday, September 30, 2004

For MT: Public Stadiums Suck

A piece by GPL, who knows things like this, because he's from Chicago, and they can burn through public money real fast. Published here, but reproduced in full:

PAT LYNCH: A Voice of Sanity in Washington
Let's consider the recent evidence on sports stadiums. More and more people are starting to sit down and realize that, as nice as it is to have a sports team in their hometown, they certainly do not want to pay obscene amounts of money to subsidize them. And teams have basically been in a less powerful position to push cities around on this matter because the market in professional sports is glutted and there is growing evidence that (surprise) large publicly funded stadiums, like most government spending, don't promote economic growth.

Still in an era when cities all across the country are telling sports owners to start paying for their own stadiums, leave it to the last U.S. bastion of socialism east of Berkeley, DC, to offer major league baseball to pay for a 400 million dollar stadium through taxes and bonds when there's already a franchise 30 miles away. Mayor Anthony Williams, in a Marion Barryesque lie, even had the gall yesterday to tell the people of Washington yesterday that they won't being paying for the stadium because it will be financed by bonds and business taxes.

Well, of course they will, and as
Sally Jenkins points out in today's Pravda, it could very easily set up a scenario in which baseball could leave the District - again.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You tell em, el jefe! If sports were so interesting, fans would be willing to pay the higher ticket prices that would be necessary to fund new stadiums. From wasting money on college campuses to wasting taypayer dollars, our obsession with sports robs universities and taxpayers alike. Make the people who like sports so much pay!

Tommy the Canuck with only one major league team left and no hockey until at least November

Anonymous said...

It should be noted that stadiums have a... apathizing (I know it's probably not a word) on the populace. Stadiums and sports in general are entertainment to make people more content. While I do not agree it is worth $400 mil of taxpayer money, there is some value to keeping people happy, giving them their bread and circuses. I mean... who hasn't seen Gladiator?

Anonymous said...

Why don't we provide them with bread and circus through free opera and concerts?

Sorry, I don't buy it....our love for sports doesn't warrant millions of taxpayer dollars that could be spent by private citizens donating money to help the poor goto college, funding the opera, etc.