The NFL will never stop lusting for unearned taxpayer dollars.

Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
Right now the NFL is telling the city of Houston that they need to cough of 50 million dollars to improve Reliant stadium if still want to host next years Superbowl. This is in the same city that is paying at least 5 million dollars a year to simply maintain the old, unused, Astrodome that no one will take responsibility for. A few years ago the Vikings threatened to move (oh god no what a shame it would be to lose such an amazing team....) unless taxpayers footed HALF of the cost for its new 1 billion dollar stadium.

I am sick of this. I enjoy football, but this is absurd. I am tired of struggling municipalities bankrolling stadiums for PRIVATE companies that get to pocket the profits. No other industry operates this way, I think football gets away with it far more than others simply because a lot of people in power like football, it's an American tradition. But so is capitalism. And what we are describing here is god damned communism.

I have no qualms with tax-incentives being used to bring in big business/entertainment, but we still walk away with a net economic gain. The way its done with NFL makes me nauseous to the extreme. If you also want to feel nauseous go ahead and read this article about their sweetheart deals, and state enforced monopoly.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/how-the-nfl-fleeces-taxpayers/309448/

This is no longer a red-blooded American game. This is some red-blooded commie joe nonsense.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
Churches run food banks and soup kitchens and (generally) run by middle class preachers. The NFL sell 70$ jerseys to poor kids and are are run by billionaires.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

Dave said:
The NFL is a non-profit, didn't you know that? And churches are a non-profit. There comes a time when we need to reevaluate non-profit status on businesses and make them pay their fair share.
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I actually understand the reasoning behind it. All of the teams are for-profit entities that pay taxes. The NFL gives all of its profits to the teams (which is subsequently taxed).
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Isn't it funny that John Oliver - a comedian from Great Britain - is a better investigative reporter than any we've seen in years? The level of analysis he gives on a specific topic each week is amazing and actually gets shit done.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
The idea that Detroit dumped 200 million dollars to pay for a new Redwings stadium, IN THE MIDDLE OF ITS BANKRUPTCY, is apalling to me. They are being asked to sell of priceless works of art to meet their debt obligations. But god forbid we stay in an older stadium or, I dunno, actually pay for it with our own money LIKE ANY OTHER BUSINESS.

God. I'm just. Its so aggravating to me. I hate the Astrodome. I'm not happy with the fact that NRG stadium was 50% public financed. And I am irritated that the first sign of how great the superbowl will be for our city is how the NFL immediately demanded millions of dollars in remodelling. And its only 13 years old.

If I had my way I would tell these teams the same thing we told the Oilers back when they demanded a new stadium at taxpayer expese:

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Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
I think what really gets me, more than anything else, is that this is entirely our fault. We, the electorate, don't care that we are just flushing away money that could be used for so many other things. Cities are going bankrupt left and right and we just throw more money at our sports teams. For the cost of a stadium we could build above grade light rail. Or we could build a world class museum. We could fully fund the pension obligations of the city employees. But no, its the football team that matters. Why doesn't anyone care? Republicans are the real shame here. Of all the political stances they should be vehemently against this. Yet they don't care either.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Necronic said:
I think what really gets me, more than anything else, is that this is entirely our fault. We, the electorate, don't care that we are just flushing away money that could be used for so many other things. Cities are going bankrupt left and right and we just throw more money at our sports teams. For the cost of a stadium we could build above grade light rail. Or we could build a world class museum. We could fully fund the pension obligations of the city employees. But no, its the football team that matters. Why doesn't anyone care?
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Bread and circuses.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
But the circuses aren't even free. They cost 100+ dollars a ticket. If they were free, or even cheap, like the museums are, I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it. But we pay for them. Some owner gets rich on them. We can't access them? And we like this? Its just...absurd.
 
Gruebeard

Gruebeard

In Toronto, back when we built the Skydome (where the Blue Jays play) it went way over budget at 600 million . . . but at least (I suppose) it was publicly owned. Until, that is, we sold it for 25 million. Such fucking bullshit.


All of it made worse that immediately after it was built, the trend for stadiums was for a classic look instead of modern or ultra modern, or whatever the heck the Skydome falls under. I do really like the retractable dome, though. It's great for this climate.
 
Eriol

Eriol

For every other business out there, location/building is a significant percentage of their expenses. But not for sports teams?

Bullshit.


The only bigger scam out there for private sports is the Olympics. The IOC gets truckloads of cash for doing basically nothing.
 
Terrik

Terrik

Necronic said:
The Olympics is by far the worst. Every time they claim how it will revitalize the town or whatever. It's never worth it for the municipality. I never want to see the Olympics in my city.
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Although, some countries like China enjoyed the Olympics as a form of "Coming out" party. That being said, Olympics are largely detrimental to the host country.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

I bro-fisted, but only because we don't get "move to LA". We do get "we need to buy all the land within a one mile radius of the stadium" stuff, though.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
DarkAudit said:
It's the Koch brothers. Do they look like they give a shit?
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Well, I should say Eminent Domain isn't SUPPOSED to work that way.. it's supposed to make something become public property because it's too important for the public interest not to... but I guess ever since the leftists on the Supreme court decided Kelo vs New London in a horrifically unconstitutional way, there's precedent for doing just what you say. /RIP AMERICA
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

GasBandit said:
Well, I should say Eminent Domain isn't SUPPOSED to work that way.. it's supposed to make something become public property because it's too important for the public interest not to... but I guess ever since the leftists on the Supreme court decided Kelo vs New London in a horrifically unconstitutional way, there's precedent for doing just what you say. /RIP AMERICA
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I'd better stop now because one party is just that arrogant, and the other just that stupid, and I'd best stop giving them ideas.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

See, there's a difference. Giving money to the Bucks = paying for entertainment for Milwaukee liberals. Giving money to the Packers = paying for entertainment for Wisconsin Conservatives (who never actually go into the stadium, because then they'd be forced to rub elbows with the unwashed heathens of the state).
 
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