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I live in wisconsin and the Milwaukee Bucks professional basketball team is having a new stadium built in downtown Milwaukee. To pay for that stadium the people of Wisconsin is going to be taxed. Now why should some people living in small towns that will never go to a game in that stadium in their lifetime pay for that? For that matter why should anyone, small town or not, pay for that basketball stadium. It makes me sick to see how people are being screwed around. If that was a factory that would employ a bunch of people it would be different. Nothing new about this controversy since its been bouncing around the media for awhile but the people who pay for it have no say wether or not they want to pay for it.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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As you said, his is nothing new, whether for a sports stadium or anything else. In our state, for example, the less populated, rural areas east of the Cascade mountains are always complaining about paying for highway taxes which are spent mostly on projects west of the mountains in the more populated Seattle metro area. Your elected officials will tell you that the sports teams benefit everyone in the state, because it provides jobs, tax money to the state, and a professional team for the residents of the state to rally around.
When folks from such polar opposites as John Oliver and AEI agree it is pretty certain that this is a case of insiders ripping off pretty much EVERYONE else...
Apparently, lots of idiot low information voters do like the idea, as well as a fair number of high wealth types, so that leaves "regular people" in the middle, fighting off both ends -- America Has a Stadium Problem|PacificStandard Magazine
It is a problem all over the country where politicians push it as civic development, tax payers go for it as a community asset not seeing what it really costs them, and sports teams see it as an opportunity to profit on the scam. All should require a vote that clearly shows how much each citizen will pay short and long term... and what revenue the teams will get.
It seems to be a foregone conclusion these days that we are all going to be considered compliant sports fans to the extent that we are now characterized as co-payers for the teams owners and their fantasia spectacles. Football has gone to the limits of hoopla and fanaticism. I can enjoy the fact of the individual players abilities but at days end I could just as well pass it up for something on a participant level. So, I am definitely against paying for anything that is ultimately the responsibility of the team owners. Posing these monstrosities as a "public improvement" is total BS.
This is the result of when most people don't vote. Those who get elected are influenced by billionaire team owners who give large campaign contributions in exchange for having the taxpayers subsidize their profitable business.
Numerous studies have shown that the economic promises made by building new stadiums do not outweigh the taxpayer burdens.
From a fairness perspective, if billionaire owners want to build new stadiums they should, and could, do it on their own dime.
Next thing you know they'll want people who don't fly on airplanes to help pay for airports.
Airports and roads are publicly owned to provide needed transportation to the public. That is a far cry from stadiums that lavish luxury boxes that the public can't afford.
The new Barclay's Center in Brooklyn has luxury suites that rent for $3 million a year.
Professional sports teams use the inferiority complex of these places to manipulate the politicians to get free stadiums and arenas. It's pretty easy to threaten to move a team to another city that will happily erect a gold-plated monument to political stupidity. I have the metro-Boston viewpoint. The state told Bob Kraft to F off when he approached them about using taxpayer money to build a stadium and threatened to move the team to Hartford. He eventually built Gillette with private funds and the only state money was road infrastructure on Route 1. Fenway Park has been private money for a century. The Boston Garden replacement was mostly done without state money. If you're an affluent large media market, taxpayer money isn't needed because there's no way the team is going to move. If you're in a small market, the team is much more likely to move and they hold you hostage.
I live in wisconsin and the Milwaukee Bucks professional basketball team is having a new stadium built in downtown Milwaukee. To pay for that stadium the people of Wisconsin is going to be taxed. Now why should some people living in small towns that will never go to a game in that stadium in their lifetime pay for that? For that matter why should anyone, small town or not, pay for that basketball stadium. It makes me sick to see how people are being screwed around. If that was a factory that would employ a bunch of people it would be different. Nothing new about this controversy since its been bouncing around the media for awhile but the people who pay for it have no say wether or not they want to pay for it.
Why should city people pay for the higher per-capita expenses associated with getting phone, cell phone, internet, and utilities to rural areas without those customers having sky high bills? There is indeed transfer of wealth between urban and rural areas, but are you sure it is in the direction you suspected?
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