Taxpayer Subsidized Home Runs, Touchdowns, Goals, Baskets

[petertribo]

That Home Run is going, going, gone with taxpayers's money. America's professional sports teams are heavily subsidized through tax laws, bond issues, and special laws allowing monopolies and special rights to sports labor. College athletics are treated much in the same way and act as feeder leagues for pro sports.

Well, now, with many major American corporations bankrupt and feeding at the Public Trough, they continue to subsidize professional sports. For now these are the Banks but many other US Corporations may go bankrupt and continue to subsidize pro sports. GM, FORD, CHRYSLER for starters.

In 2006, Citigroup entered into a $400 million contract with the New York Mets for naming rights to the team's stadium, now called Citi Field. That was then. Housing prices were climbing, no-doc loans were flying out the door and Citigroup was encouraging us all to "Live Richly."

This is now. Citigroup has taken $45 billion in bailout funds -- plus another several hundred billion in guarantees -- to stay afloat as it contemplates breaking into smaller pieces. With that cash in mind, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, one of the House's most liberal Democrats, and Texas Rep. Ted Poe, one of the most conservative Republicans, see a problem with the $400 million contract. The duo wrote newly-confirmed Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Thursday urging him to nix the deal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0..._n_163151.html

The Yankess also had a big subsidy from taxpayers to build their new stadium and rumors are that the Corporate seats are not going like hotcakes. More public $$$$ may be needed.

It is mildly amusing that a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies will watch his team play against another team, the New York Mets, that that fan is subsidizing with his tax dollars. But most amusing is QUICKEN LOANS ARENA:

http://www.theqarena.com/

Score a loan or refi to pay your sports taxes at:

https://www.quickenloans.com/

Maybe, TARP STADIUM soon to come.

[Slimprofits]

Re: Taxpayer Subsidized Home Runs, Touchdowns, Goals, Baskets

Phillies fans, if they're informed, won't find it ironic. The Phillies are owned by a small group of private investors but they play in a park that the city of Philadelphia payed for.

Citizens Bank Park:

Owner: City of Philadelphia
Cost: $346 million
Public financing: $174 million
Private financing: $172 million

Philadelphia’s potential $450 million budget shortfall over the next five years could grow larger, depending on the fallout from this week’s market upset, city Finance Director Rob Dubow said Wednesday. (09/18/08)

[petertribo]

Re: Taxpayer Subsidized Home Runs, Touchdowns, Goals, Baskets

True for many American communities both large and small. Politicians love Sports, great way to get votes.

An interesting project would be to calculate for each major league team how much Public Money each gets. Then each team could be compared to each other and handicapped on that basis.

Public Yankee Panky:

A post in today's Daily News talks about the Yankees' approach to stadium funding for the new stadium, stating, "The federal government just gave America's richest sports team another gift."

According to the details of this article, the tax-free bonds granted to the New York Yankees may be worth $366 million. This is also not the first time the Yankees have pursued such funding. Original bonds are worth $942 million.

A congressional committee will meet to discuss the funding:

The committee, headed by U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), is investigating allegations of inflated land assessments and other improprieties connected to the city's sponsorship of the first tax-free bonds for the project.

Kucinich is under the belief that the land value is overpriced and that city officials played a part in the bond approval:

Kucinich told Mayor Bloomberg in a letter last week that the city's Finance Department overvalued the land and the construction costs of the new stadium by as much as $500 million. He also claimed city officials lied about that assessment to the IRS so the Yankees could qualify for the tax-free bonds.

A common question surrounding sports arenas and stadiums is whether or not they should be funded by taxpayer money. What do you think? Comment below.

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/..._for_yank.html

Doesn't the above sound vaguely familiar----Real Estate, Bloated Appraisal, Bonds and Fraud.

[Serge_Tomiko]

Re: Taxpayer Subsidized Home Runs, Touchdowns, Goals, Baskets

bread and games folks. When a substantial portion of the population serves no purpose besides voting and consuming the graft of those for whom they vote, what do you expect?

[Slimprofits]

Re: Taxpayer Subsidized Home Runs, Touchdowns, Goals, Baskets

Since 2000, 28 new major league stadiums have been built costing over $9 billion dollars. More than half, over $5 billion, of the costs of the new stadiums were funded using public dollars.

Table 1 - Decade Stadium was Built (or had Major Renovations)
NFL NBA MLB NHL MLS*
Pre – 1980 10 1 9 5 15
1980-1989 3 5 3 1 3
1990-1999 9 19 9 19 5
2000-2008 9 5 9 5 15

Source: Sports Facility Reports – National Sports Law Institute

* 5 MLS franchises had missing data, MLS is not typically included when discussing major sports league.

source for that information is: Public Funding of Sports Stadiums by Sarah Wilhelm, PhD, Economic Research and Consulting 04-30-08

This website has information including the % breakdown of public and private funding for all of the stadiums in the U.S. that house professional teams.