Why is Charlotte using taxpayer funds for a new stadium, and proposing another uptown entertainment center?

[cjseliga]

Originally Posted by urbancharlotte

The reason why he is a billionaire is because he knows how to make money off of other people's money.

I was going to say something similar along those lines.

If you want to become a millionaire/billionaire just follow these simple rules:

Rule #1 - Try and use as little of your own money as possible.

Rule #2 - See Rule #1.

The extremely wealthy and extremely poor, are the first two in line for government handouts!

As for funding a new arena/stadium/ballpark privately, there are a few examples recently where the owner(s) did "pony up" and pay for the new facility, but these are the exception and far from the rule.

The 1st is the new Chase Center in San Francisco where the Warriors play, it cost the owners $1.4 billion, of course the city did end up paying for infrastructure improvements around the new arena and the owners might have gotten some sort of property tax break as well, I'm not sure.

Another example, is the soon to be open, Climate Pledge Arena, in Seattle for the Kraken, the owners are spending $1.15 billion of their own money to build this new arena, like the Chase Center, the city will pay for infrastructure improvements around the new arena.

[The QC]

In the first example, San Francisco is a large market. The owners were not getting a new arena in Oakland. But in San Fran they can still make plenty of money with a winning team and premium prices in everything from tickets to concessions to the selling of Warriors gear. When the Hornets used to play in a 24k seat arena in Charlotte, they got all revenue from parking, ticket sales and concessions. Every game was a sellout for 8 years. They led NBA in attendance during those 8 years. But the NY Knicks made more revenue from their local tv package than the Hornets made total revenue. The owners of the Warriors can afford to pay if they choose to do so.

The second example shows that Seattle realizes they screwed up by not building the arena for the Sonics. They want back into the game.

[The QC]

I can understand GSP’s concern, but that ship has sailed. So many things are subsidized from roads, transit, public schools, universities, college sports, job recruitment, arts, museums, parks, housing, groceries, healthcare, space program, large think tanks and more.