Billionaire Mark Cuban: Forgiving $1 trillion in student debt 'is the worst thing we can do'

[TexasTowelie]

Billionaire businessman, investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, has made it clear that he is not a fan of the over $1 trillion of student loans in America.

News came this week that Sweet Briar College in Virginia will close after 114 years due to financial reasons with the class of 2015 being its last graduating class.

As the school fights to stay afloat, Cuban sounded off on the “student loan bubble” as tuition’s continue to rise thanks to student loans that are never ending.

-snip-

“Forgiving the debt is the worst thing you can do, because all it does is bail out the universities,” Cuban told Business Insider on Tuesday.

Read more: http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2015/03/billionaire-dallas-mavericks-owner-mark-cuban-forgiving-1-trillion-in-student-debt-is-the-worst-thing-we-can-do.html/

[KamaAina]

1. Well, he did pick Annthrax as his running mate

in Sharknado 3.

[GeorgeGist]

2. Says the guy who got his start feeding at the trough of ...

Indiana University.

[hunter]

3. Listening to billionaires 'is the worst thing we can do.'

If we had any sense we'd tax them out of existence.

[mythology]

4. He's not wrong if we don't address the underlying problem

It's like bailing the banks out and then rolling back regulations was a mistake.

If you erase student loans alone, the incentive is for universities to raise tuition.

Instead we need to find ways to lower the base cost. Maybe that means more state schools, maybe it means something else. But the current rise in tuition costs isn't sustainable.

[Hoyt]

5. +1. And some of the "schools" are questionable.

[JDPriestly]

8. Fund tuition at state schools out of taxes and private universities will pay their administrators

less, build fewer new, fancy buildings and provide more scholarships and then lower tuition.

[OKNancy]

6. Once again... read the whole article before commenting...

[bluesbassman]

9. As many won't, here's a little insight into what Cuban is actually talking about...

“Anything that causes lenders and service companies to act fairly is a good thing,” Cuban said in a statement to Business Insider about Obama’s plan. “The challenge is that you can’t subsidize or forgive existing debt without very strict rules. Otherwise it allows schools to tell future students not to worry. They too will get some portion forgiven. Which in turn gives the school more leeway to raise tuition.”

Interestingly, Cuban’s strong stance has resulted in the purchase of collegedebt.com which shows a running total of student loan debt in the United States. Cuban bought the site several years ago and now the running total is at $1.3 trillion.

Cuban says eventually the cost of attending college and the debt that a student incurs will outweigh the benefits of a college degree.

“What you thought you were going to get in quality of life by going to that college,” Cuban said, “you’ve just undermined with the amount of debt you’re taking on.”

He's not shitting on students as the headline suggests, he's talking about a systemic problem where the tuition schedule is playing a huge role and the resulting debt load faced by current and future students is counter productive.

[hatrack]

7. DU Non-Billionaire: Shoveling Out Billions In Stadium, Sports Subsidies "The Worst Thing We Can Do"

Every year, millions of taxpayer dollars are poured into stadiums, hockey rinks, baseball parks, and other arenas in order to attract and retain professional sports teams in big cities. Often the money is spent by the cities after a team "threatens" to leave the city.

When that happens, of course, the local news media act as the willing accomplices of the billionaires who own the teams. As a practical matter, the news media have no choice. If the news coverage on Channel 37, for example, exposes the local team's economic uselessness to the community, the chances are near zero that the sports anchor from Channel 37 will ever get access to the locker room after a big game.

When city and state governments build facilities for sports organizations which are owned by billionaires, and raise taxes as a result, it is clearly an abuse of power.

In addition to stadiums and arenas, the government also spends your money on smaller projects that add to your tax burden. For example, CAGW's List of Omnibus Earmarks includes

$750,000 for the Baseball Hall of Fame
$202,500 to the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame, Sports Research Center in Patchogue, New York for facilities renovations
$405,000 to the Staten Island Soccer League of New York for facilities construction
$800,000 to the New York Olympic Regional Development Authority for facilities construction for the Mount VanHoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex
$90,000 for the City of Waterbury, Connecticut for an economic feasibility study focused on construction of a multi-purpose sports facility
$50,000 for "Pro Sports Outreach," whatever that is.

Obviously, there's no advertising on this page, so you might wonder about my motives. I'm just not a sports fan. I do not understand why otherwise sensible people pay hundreds of dollars per seat to watch a football game. Football is an even mixture of hedonism and idolatry. Basketball is about the same. Look at the products that are advertised during a football game: beer, luxury cars and pickup trucks, cell phones, and more beer. Look at the halftime show at a football game: It's godless hedonism. Look at the "ring of honor" at the stadium: It's idolatry.

In June, 2011, a quarter of a million people cheered in the streets as the Dallas Mavericks celebrated their championship with a parade (paid for by Mark Cuban [1] [2] [3] [4]) and a full day of televised self-aggrandizement. But not one of the fans seems to understand that the basketball team's success does not benefit the fans in any way. The fans went home sunburned and dehydrated and no better off than they were a month ago, yet they seem to think they've accomplished something. I just don't get it.

This page has been put here to serve as an alarm to the overburdened taxpayer. When a city government spends $10 million or $100 million on a stadium, where do you think the money came from? Is the presence of a football team really so important? Wouldn't you prefer to keep your money in your pocket, and let the billionaires pay their own bills?

Note: Regular visitors, if any, may notice that the Sports Page now includes material about sports-related topics other than taxpayer-funded stadiums. That material is at the bottom of the page.

In particular, the discussion about the allegedly offensive name of the football team in Washington DC is now covered on its own page.


Stadiums and arenas in general:
Here is a list of "stimulus bill" projects that include the word "Stadium."

Raiders, Chargers propose joint use stadium in Los Angeles. The city of Los Angeles, which has been without a NFL team since 1995, may be home to two — possibly three — teams. The Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers have jointly proposed to build a $1.7 billion stadium in Los Angeles that each team would share. The proposal is for a privately financed stadium to be built in Carson, located about 10 miles south of Los Angeles, representatives from each team said during an announcement Thursday [2/19/2015].

The bad economics of hosting the Super Bowl. Sports economists say hosting Super Bowl XLIX won't create a huge economic boost for the Phoenix, Ariz., metropolitan area, despite thousands of football fans traveling to the area. Like most Super Bowl host cities, the Phoenix metropolitan area is already a large economy, approximately $210 billion in size. To increase the metropolitan economy by just 1 percent, the Super Bowl would have to create more than $2 billion in economic growth. For comparison, a study funded by the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee found that visitors spent $218 million when the area hosted the Super Bowl in 2008.

Super Bowl Host City Still Reeling Over Sports Deals. Glendale bet big on professional sports in the last 15 years, spending millions of dollars on a hockey arena for the Arizona Coyotes and investing heavily in a spring training ballpark for the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. Then the economy tanked, and the hockey team went through bankruptcy, with several different owners in recent years.

Eminent domain use for possible Olympic site feared. Should Boston ultimately be tapped to host the 2024 Summer Games, the use of eminent domain will be a tempting option to help clear prized land for Olympic venues, but deploying it, warns a legal expert, could cause disastrous ripple effects with lasting economic harm. "There is a long history of using eminent domain to try to promote economic development. Most of the time what happens is it tends to destroy more development than it actually creates," said Ilya Somin, a George Mason University property law professor. "It destroys existing businesses and homes. It undermines the security of property rights and it tends to destroy people's social ties in their neighborhoods."

The Redevelopment Racket. The justifications that governments give for subsidizing private developments are often dubious, but this was particularly so for a recent New Jersey deal. This summer, the state granted $82 million in tax credits to the Philadelphia 76ers to build a practice facility in Camden. Although it will create only 50 jobs and be closed to the public, officials believe that its waterfront presence will uplift the city. The credit was granted by a heavily indebted state to the team's billionaire owner, for a city that suffers 16 percent unemployment and 42 percent poverty, and recently cut half of its police force.

San Fran Kisses Its 70,000-Person Toilet Goodbye. Candlestick Park, born in 1960 and scheduled to be executed presently, was an unpleasant, uncomfortable, cold, remote, windblown penitentiary located as far from San Francisco as this city's mythical 49-square-mile limit permitted.

Sitting empty, Bears Stadium costs Newark, Essex County millions. Newark, where more than a quarter of residents live in poverty, is stuck paying $1 million a year on bonds for a baseball park that's lost its main tenant. The $34 million Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, envisioned as a pillar of development in the state's most populous city when it opened in 1999, is mostly silent this season after the Newark Bears folded amid dwindling attendance. The owners are trying to sell the club after putting belongings, including the team bus, up for auction in April.

Mayor's alternative to Walmart? Downtown baseball stadium. In an effort to block Walmart's proposed store in the city's downtown, Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt is pitching the idea of instead using the site for a new baseball stadium. Schmitt has floated the stadium idea privately to several aldermen and other civic leaders as an alternative to Walmart's planned retail superstore in the Broadway shopping district.

Trump would put up his own money for new Bills stadium if bid is accepted. Billionaire developer Donald Trump said Monday [5/26/2014] that he's willing to put up some of his own money to help build a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills if his bid to buy the team is successful. Asked about contributing money to a new Bills stadium during a brief interview before a speech at the National Press Club, Trump said, "I think I would. If my bid were accepted, I would certainly do what I could do." The new Bills stadium is likely to involve public financing as well, Trump said in the interview, in which he reiterated the team's need for a new facility and said his employees had already scouted out a couple of good stadium sites in Buffalo.

Very slightly off-topic:
Chris Christie backers awarded $223m tax break to build New Jersey mall. A major new shopping mall and housing development in New Jersey, which is controlled by the biggest corporate funders of Chris Christie's official mansion, has been awarded a $223m public subsidy by the governor's administration. Luxury Point, a vast retail, residential and entertainment complex to be built in Sayreville, was last month given one of the biggest corporate tax breaks handed out so far by the Republican governor's state authorities, which are facing a $2.7bn budget shortfall over the next year.

Just a little off-topic:
$6M in tax credits for firm to move one floor up in Jersey City office tower. An Atlanta-based payment processing firm that rents space on the 39th floor of a Downtown Jersey City tower will receive $6 million in state tax credits over the next 20 years to move one floor up in the same building. The state Economic Development Authority approved the tax credits at its August meeting, saying First Data was considering a move to Atlanta. First Data's Jersey City expansion will result in 74 new jobs, a figure touted yesterday by Mayor Steve Fulop, who said the deal is proof that Jersey City is becoming a "preferred location" for businesses.

Brazil World Cup Extremely Costly. Brazil's World Cup stadium will cost $900 million in public funds due to allegedly fraudulent billing, the Associated Press reports. The cost of the stadium has tripled, making it the world's second-most expensive soccer stadium.

Brazil's advice to World Cup tourists: 'Don't scream if robbed'. Rather than ignore the many problems plaguing the country's preparations for its games — drought, murder, striking police, ballooning costs, mismanagement and Dengue fever — police are inching toward resignation. They know Rio de Janeiro state, which saw more than 4,000 murders in 2012, is pretty dangerous. And the 600,000 tourists who are expected to descend upon Rio should know it, too. So Rio police have compiled a list of tips on navigating the city's violence, including asking tourists to refrain from screaming if someone robs them.

Super Bowl cost NJ Transit $5.6 million. New Jersey's playing host to the Super Bowl cost NJ Transit $5.6 million, its executive director told a state Senate panel Thursday [5/1/2014]. Ronnie Hakim said expenses to the agency — which moved ticketholders from Secaucus Junction to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford for the Feb. 2 game — were $7.2 million, including overtime and other costs during Super Bowl week. That was offset by $1.6 million in revenue from ticket sales and Pepsi advertising on njtransit.com, on trains and throughout the Secaucus Junction station, she said.

Hot dogs, Cracker Jack and ballpark welfare. Lawmakers from Miami to San Diego to Seattle have spent hundreds of millions of public dollars on ballparks so billionaire owners didn't have to reach into their own pockets to pay for a place to put their businesses. In Miami, Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria persuaded Miami-Dade County taxpayers to build a baseball stadium with a retractable roof for his team in Little Havana. By the time taxpayers pay off the interest, the stadium will have cost the public $3 billion. Despite guarantees that the stadium, which opened in 2012, would lure fans to the park in droves, the Marlins rank 26th in the majors in attendance, drawing fewer than 20,000 fans a game.

Public Funding of Sports Stadiums: Spreadsheet appears to show the percentage of public funding for each of 54 arenas.

Football: A Waste of Taxpayers' Money. The NFL's Vikings are lousy at scoring touchdowns — they have the worst record in the NFC North — but they've proven remarkably adept in shaking down Minnesotans for free money. Next year they'll be playing ball in a brand-spanking new $975 million complex in downtown Minneapolis, more than half of whose cost is being picked up by state and local taxpayers.

Florida Court Allows Taking Of Private Land To Build A Major League Soccer Stadium. Last Friday [1/31/2014], the Orlando Sentinel and News 13 Orlando both reported that a Florida Circuit Court upheld the City of Orlando's decision to take private property located on West Church Street to build a soccer stadium for Orlando City SC, which is Major League Soccer's newest expansion team.

Bankruptcy Hasn't Stopped Detroit's Plan for Public Funding of New Sports Stadium. Detroit is declaring bankruptcy while its city council considers contributing public money to build a new Hockey Stadium for the billionaire owner of the Red Wings.

The Dark Side of the Atlanta Braves New Stadium. Why would the Braves move from a convenient, fan-friendly stadium that's only 17 years old to the traffic gridlock hell at the interchange of interstates I-75 and I-285? Because Cobb County officials bribed the team's owners with $450 million of taxpayers' money, that's why. That means failing business owners, struggling single mothers, the unemployed and families fighting to make ends meet will be forced to pick up most of the tab for the cost of a new state-of-the-art baseball stadium so the team's owners don't have to.

Braves plan to build new stadium in Cobb. Braves executives John Schuerholz, Mike Plant and Derek Schiller, in a meeting with a small group of reporters, said the new ballpark will be built at the northwest intersection of I-75 and I-285 in the Galleria/Cumberland Mall area. They said the team has "secured" approximately 60 acres of land for the project. The Braves said the stadium is projected to cost $672 million, including parking, land and infrastructure, and will be built in partnership with Cobb County.

It's (Financially) In the Hole! The Red Wing City Council put Mississippi National Golf Links out to pasture for the year, buying time to sort out what's become a $150,000 annual financial handicap on average for local taxpayers. "We all know what the lay of the land is for golf courses," said Rick Moskwa, public works director in Red Wing. "They're all struggling. There's an over-saturation in this area for sure but I don't know what the likelihood of somebody coming in and saying we're interested in running something like this is and if that's even possible that it can bankroll itself."

Eminent domain and the Sacramento Kings. Apparently we have arrived in the brave new world where the government can seize the property of private businesses such as Macy's or of individual homeowners and declare that it's in the public interest to put a privately owned soccer stadium in its place. And this assertion is made in the face of historical evidence, as [Ilya] Somin points out, that sports stadiums almost always turn out to be economic losers for the communities where they are constructed.

Denial in Detroit as City Plans $400 Million Taxpayer Funded Hockey Arena. Defenders of the plan say that it is part of an overall economic development scheme and will "provide jobs."

New $444 million hockey arena is still a go in Detroit. Detroit's financial crisis hasn't derailed the city's plans to spend more than $400 million in Michigan taxpayer funds on a new hockey arena for the Red Wings. Advocates of the arena say it's the kind of economic development needed to attract both people and private investment dollars into downtown Detroit.

Sacramento Bids $574 Million to Keep NBA's Kings. In a bid to keep the city's lone major professional sports team from bolting to Seattle, Sacramento's City Council has voted to approve a deal for a new downtown arena for the NBA's Sacramento Kings. The deal is estimated to cost taxpayers at least $574 million in debt payments over the 35-year life of the bonds that would be issued to fund the arena's construction.

Cubs Pledge $300 Mil. to Renovate Wrigley Field. The owners of the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team say they are willing to spend $300 million of their own money to renovate their home ballpark, the nearly 100-year-old Wrigley Field. In 2012 the Ricketts family, who own the Cubs, appeared to be closing in on a taxpayer-funded stadium renovation plan with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. But Emanuel backed away after Cubs trustee/owner Joe Ricketts considered funding a TV commercial campaign against the reelection of President Barack Obama.

Chicago Suburb Borrows Millions to Repay Stadium Debt. Saddled with debt payments after sinking $135 million into the construction of a soccer stadium, the Chicago-area suburb of Bridgeview recently had to borrow an additional $27 million to cover required bond payments. The Chicago Tribune reported the new borrowing comes on top of more than $218 million in debt cited in the village's 2011 audited statements.

Bill Aims to Slow Borrowing by Illinois Municipalities. The bill comes in the wake of news stories about property taxes soaring in numerous communities where local governments have borrowed money with the promise it would cost taxpayers nothing. Sports stadiums, golf courses, village halls, and other facilities built or bought with alternate revenue bonds are supposed to generate enough money to repay the debts. In many instances, the revenues have fallen woefully short, forcing taxpayers to cover the difference.

Small Town Gets Big-League Debt with Stadium Deal. While large cities tend to receive attention for big-league deals giving tax money to build stadiums for pro sports teams, small towns have also been stepping up to the plate to lure minor-league or second-tier professional sports teams. Many of those small towns are losing big. One is Bridgeview, Illinois, which is in dire financial straits because its taxpayer-owned soccer stadium has failed to generate the promised operational revenues and regional economic benefits that stadium backers had touted. The town built the stadium with $135 million in general-obligation bonds.

Minnesota to Send Nearly $500 Million to Billionaire Team Owners. Nearly $500 million in taxpayer subsidies will go to a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League. Gov. Mark Dayton (DFL) signed the bill authorizing the taxpayer giveaway in May. Many Vikings fans greeted the bill signing with jubilation. Taxpayer advocates and economists who study the impact of sports stadiums warned the promised benefits are unlikely to materialize. The team's principal owner is billionaire real estate magnate Zygmunt Wilf.
"Wastebook 2012": The National Football League (NFL), the National Hockey League (NHL), and the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) classify themselves as non-profit organizations to exempt themselves from federal income taxes on earnings. Smaller sports leagues, such as the National Lacrosse League, are also using the tax status. Taxpayers may be losing at least $91 million subsidizing these tax loopholes for professional sports leagues that generate billions of dollars annually in profits. [...] Almost half of professional football teams are valued at over $1 billion.

STOP the Wilmington Tax-Funded Stadium. A local baseball stadium will do nothing in any impactful way to stimulate our local eocnomy. The etaphor of filling one side of a swimming pool with water collected from the opposite side explains this perfectly. Local residents do not bury their expendable cash for entertainment purposes in a coffee can in the backyard waiting for a stadium to be built. They currently spend what they can afford in our many already existing local attractions, shopping, and dining. A baseball stadium will do nothing more than redirect a family's entertainment funds that would have been spent anyway in the local economy elsewhere.

Minnesota to Send Nearly $500 Million to Billionaire Team Owners. Nearly $500 million in taxpayer subsidies will go to a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League. Gov. Mark Dayton (DFL) signed the bill authorizing the taxpayer giveaway in May. Many Vikings fans greeted the bill-signing with jubilation. Taxpayer advocates and economists who study the impact of sports stadiums warned the promised benefits are unlikely to materialize. The team's principal owner is billionaire real estate magnate Zygmunt Wilf.

St. Louis Rejects $700 Million Stadium Renovation Plan. The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission (CVC) has rejected a proposal for an estimated $700 million in renovations to the Edward Jones Dome, home field of the Rams of the National Football League. The CVC's decision to reject the Rams' proposal, announced in early June, follows the team's rejection of a proposal by the CVC for $124 million in renovations. The matter could go to arbitration. The CVC has the authority to accept or reject any plan the arbitrators select or create.

Hell to the Redskins. When compared to the $498 million fleecing Minnesota taxpayers just endured, the $6.4 million Virginia taxpayers will be spending — thanks to Republican Governor Bob McDonnell — on improvements to the Redskins' training facilities looks like small potatoes. Regardless of size, both the Vikings' new stadium and the Redskins "deal" feature the same credulous acceptance of imaginary threats, insider dealing and Babbitt boosterism that undermines the democratic process and contributes to voter alienation.

Public Funding of Sports Stadiums. 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. In Utah, 4 stadiums have been built since 1991 costing $386 million in today's dollars; $200 million (in today's dollars) of that total was paid out of the coffers of Utah cities, Salt Lake County and the State of Utah.

Game over: Public financing of stadiums. For years, owners got their way — mostly by pitting one market against another, preying on civic insecurity. "If you don't give me what I want, I might be forced to relocate my team to a city with more appreciative fans." Now, though, the cleat is on the other foot. It's the taxpayers pitting owners against owners. "If teams in other cities can build their pavilions without public help," they ask, "Why can't you?"

New stadiums — taking from the old and sick and giving to millionaires. When new sport stadiums are financed with public money, research has shown that the population is actually worse off economically than before the stadium. This flies in the face of the argument that stadium proponents advance, mainly that a new stadium brings new jobs and economic expansion. Let's look at the costs and benefits from a new stadium from both the perspective of the team, and of the "public."

Public Funding of Stadiums Archives. A seven-year collection of news stories.

Media Bias and Public Stadium Funding. If these are such obviously bad deals, then why does the public tolerate the public funding of sports venues? [Rick] Eckstein has an answer.

Stadium promises never pay. [Scroll down] In a just-released article in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, my colleagues and I studied media coverage of 23 publicly financed stadium initiatives in 16 different cities, including Philadelphia. We found that the mainstream media in most of these cities is noticeably biased toward supporting publicly financed stadiums, which has a significant impact on the initiatives' success. This bias usually takes the form of uncritically parroting stadium proponents' economic and social promises, quoting stadium supporters far more frequently than stadium opponents, overlooking the numerous objective academic studies on the topic, and failing to independently examine the multitude of failed stadium-centered promises throughout the country, especially those in oft-cited "success cities" such as Denver and Cleveland.

An Examination of Sporting Event Economic Impact Studies. Economists widely believe that studies sponsored by leagues and events exaggerate the economic impact that professional franchises and large sporting events make on local communities. Such overstatement results from several factors. First, the studies often ignore the substitution effect. To the extent that attendees at a sporting event spend their money on that event instead of on other activities in the local economy, the sporting event simply results in reallocation of expenditures in the economy, rather than in real net increases in economic activity.

Metropolitan Prosperity From Major League Sports in the CBD. Whether it is publicly or privately financed, a metropolitan area receives the same benefits from an arena or a stadium. Nevertheless, usually at least a portion of the $100 to $500 million cost of a new arena or stadium is funded with public dollars. The reason is that owners of professional sports teams have been effective at threatening city officials with alternative locations. One important issue, then, is whether the employment and income benefits from the new sports facility are greater than the public cost.

The Growth Effects of Sport Franchises, Stadia and Arenas. This paper investigates the relationship between professional sports franchises and venues and real per capita personal income in 37 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States over the period 1969-1994. Our empirical framework accounts for the entry and departure of professional football, basketball and baseball franchises; the construction of arenas and stadia; and other sports-related factors over this time period. In contrast to other existing studies, we find evidence that some professional sports franchises reduce the level of per capita personal income in metropolitan areas and have no effect on the growth in per capita income, casting doubt on the ability of a new sports franchise or facility to spur economic growth.

Eleven Sources of Misapplication. Many sports events, facilities, and franchises are subsidized either directly or indirectly by investments from public sector funds. The scarcity of tax dollars has led to growing public scrutiny of their allocations.

Public Funding of Sports Stadiums. Since 2000, 28 new major league stadiums have been built costing over nine billion dollars. More than half, over $5 billion, of the costs of the new stadiums were funded using public dollars. ... Across the nation, franchises have argued that building a new stadium will lead to economic development in the form of increased incomes, jobs and tax revenues. However, the preponderance of academic research has disputed these claims.

The Stadium Gambit and Local Economic Development. The evidence suggests that attracting a professional sports franchise to a city and building that franchise a new stadium or arena will have no effect on the growth rate of real per capita income and may reduce the level of real per capita income in that city. Yet government decisionmakers and politicians continue to try to attract professional sports franchises to cities, or use public funds to construct elaborate new facilities in order to keep existing franchises from moving. ... However, regardless of the size of the nonpecuniary benefits, one thing is clear from the evidence on professional sports franchises: owners are reaping substantial benefits in the value of their teams because they are so skilled at the stadium gambit.

C.L.A.S.S. Action U.S.A. — Cincinnati Chapter. The Citizens' League Against Subsidized Sports is an initiative designed to restore fiscal sanity to the relationship between professional teams and the communities that host them. Professional sports franchises are a multi-billion dollar business nationwide. Yet in cities across the country, those cash-rich organizations say they "need" taxpayers to cover their business expenses — specifically, the maintenance and operation of stadiums which were built originally with taxpayer dollars.

Group Begins Effort to Put Ticket Tax on the Ballot. A local group is beginning an effort to put a ticket tax on the ballot in November to help eliminate the deficit in the stadium fund. Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune held a news conference Saturday [5/21/2011] to announce the plan. Paperwork he provided shows the group's name would be CLASS Action. It stands for the Citizens League Against Subsidized Sports.

Group Wants to Shift Stadium Costs to Primary Users. In 1996, Hamilton County voters approved a sales tax to pay for the construction of Paul Brown Stadium and the Great American Ball Park. The sales tax hasn't kept up with projections, meaning County leaders have had to pay the bills with money from other sources. Also, the lease requires the County to pay for much of the maintainence and upkeep at the stadiums, and those costs are rising as the two faciliities age. Todd Portune says those who use the stadium the most should be the ones paying for them, not the average taxpayer.

The Municipal Debt Bubble: When state and local governments want to spend more than they collect in revenues, they issue bonds. Such bonds are a longstanding feature of the American landscape, going back at least as far as 1812, but during the last decade they have spun out of control, as states and cities have increased their borrowing to indulge in more and more spending on new stadiums, schools, bridges, and museums. They have even started borrowing to cover their basic operational expenses. Since 2000 the total outstanding state and municipal bond debt, adjusted for inflation, has soared from $1.5 trillion to $2.8 trillion. The recession didn't slow the spending.

Electorate Energized in the Sunshine State. Politicians in both parties should cast their eyes towards Miami if they believe they can continue to ignore the will of the electorate. Republican Mayor Carlos Alvarez who was first elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2008, was given the boot in a recall election that was stunning in terms of percentages. With one hundred percent of the vote counted, 88% of Miami-Dade voters decided enough was enough. What did Alvarez in? Tax hikes, raises for members of his inner circle, and an ill-fated decision to have taxpayers underwrite a portion of the building costs for a new Florida Marlins baseball stadium.

Want Economic Stimulus? Don't Build a Sports Stadium! For the last few decades sports teams across the country have nosed up to the public trough and demanded that states and cities chip in millions for the construction of new sports stadiums. To justify the public expense the claim has been made that these monstrous construction projects bring a wealth of jobs and spending on entertainment and are a boon to any city that will fund them. But are they? Do these multi-million dollar projects bring such lucrative benefits to the cities and states that pay through the nose for them?

Sports Stadiums as Wise Investments. In some respects, not much has changed since the early days of professional sports. Today, one of the most popular ways for a city to demonstrate its interest in a professional sports franchise is to possess a facility in which the team can play. In other respects, however, a great deal has changed since [William] Cammeyer opened the first stadium. Today, the facility used to attract a franchise is not likely to be owned by a private entrepreneur manager-owner, but rather by a government agency.

America's Municipal Debt Racket. New Jersey officials recently celebrated the selection of the new stadium in the Meadowlands sports complex as the site of the 2014 Super Bowl. Absent from the festivities was any sense of the burden the complex has become for taxpayers. Nearly 40 years ago the Garden State borrowed $302 million to begin constructing the Meadowlands. The goal was to pay off the bonds in 25 years. ... Today, the authority that runs the Meadowlands is in hock for $830 million, which it can't pay back.

Blocked party: NFL bars host town from using 'Super Bowl' name. The sports world is converging on East Rutherford (pop. 8,978) for Sunday's game between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, and all the town wanted to do was have a little block party for locals not rich or lucky enough to have tickets. The NFL can't stop the party, but they did bar East Rutherford from using the phrase "Super Bowl" in any description of the humble event, set to take place Sunday afternoon in the shadow of the town's most famous building, MetLife Stadium.

As Super Bowl exits NJ, taxpayers on hook for many expenses. As the NFL packs out of town, with their self-proclaimed all-American extravaganza, we should say good riddance, and make sure they don't come back with their big money, big everything, big game. Because you, New Jersey taxpayer, are on the hook for the league's big party for itself.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Admit Their Guitars Were Unplugged During [...] Halftime Show. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been in hot water this week after careful analysis of the [big] halftime show footage revealed that the band's instruments weren't plugged in to anything. Flea, the Peppers' zany bassist, took to the band's blog Tuesday evening [2/4/2014] to explain why they were essentially playing air guitar alongside headliner Bruno Mars.

The Editor says...
A lot of people paid a lot of money to see the Big Event, and the halftime show is supposed to be a significant inducement to attend. If I had bought an expensive ticket and ended up watching a lip sync show, I'd be plenty miffed.
Politicians Smother Cities. [Scroll down] Politicians claim that stadiums increase the number of jobs. Not so, says J.C. Bradbury, author of The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed. "There's a huge consensus among economists that there is no economic development benefit to having these stadiums," he says. The stadiums do create jobs for construction workers and some vendors. But "it's a case of the seen and the unseen," Bradbury says, alluding to the 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat. "It's very easy to see a new stadium going up. ... But what you don't see is that something else didn't get built across town. ... It's just transferring from one place to the other.

Build It, Or Else. The Seattle Supersonics have determined that their home, Key Arena — last refurbished 10 years ago to the tune of $95 million — is deficient. Only 45 percent of Key Arena's suites are rented, whereas in other cities the suites run at 90 percent to 100 percent capacity. … So the team's principal owner, Howard Schultz, chairman of Starbucks Coffee Company, has begun reading from a well-thumbed script.

Opening day subsidies: Publicly funded sports stadiums are like crack cocaine to local politicians and business bigwigs. These folks are just like addicts: They deceive everyone around them for the sake of a fix and rarely take no for an answer when voters decline to subsidize their schemes. Instead, they resort to theft — in the form of dubious hotel, sales, and other taxes — to pay for their fix, forcing citizens who couldn't care less about sports to subsidize teams.

Public welfare for billionaires — Pro-Sports Stadiums. Owners of pro-sports franchises are pressuring many cities to provide luxurious stadiums at taxpayer expense. But some communities are throwing up a tough defense.

Eight reasons to reject publicly financed stadiums for professional sports teams: Providing public subsidies for private stadiums in corporate welfare plain and simple. Public subsidies for stadiums go directly into the pockets of team owners and players by increasing profits, player salaries and raising the re-sale value of the team. … The billionaire team owners and the players profit, but the taxpayer doesn't see a dime.

This material came from akdart.com, Copyright 2011.Does Public Investment in Municipal Sports Stadiums Pay Off? Critics of public investment in new stadiums also note that the multiplier effects of new stadiums is likely to be small since most new stadiums contain larger parking, restaurant, souvenir, and other concession facilities. This reduces the amount of spillover benefits in the neighboring community. Most economic studies have found that the local economy receives at best only limited economic benefits from the construction of such stadiums.

Public Subsidies For Sports Stadiums Don't Spur Economic Growth. America is in the midst of a sports stadium building binge fueled by a considerable dose of public funding. Nationally, public subsidies for stadiums exceed $500 million a year. Oklahoma City joined the building binge by funding a new 18,000-seat arena as part of the MAPS program. Subsidies have not been limited to major league sports; many communities have built facilities for minor-league sports teams as well.

Financing Professional Sports Facilities: Public financing of large public facilities is always a challenge. Will it be worth the cost? How will the construction costs be funded? Is it an appropriate use of public funds? Advocates for new sports facilities often stress the economic benefits that a new facility can bring to the community. Opponents frequently point out that many economic impact studies on the topic have found that the benefits may not be substantial.

Stadium Finance: Government's Role in the 1990s. Public financing of sports facilities for professional sports teams has been the subject of growing controversy in recent years. For decades, full public financing of sports stadiums and arenas was the norm. In the last decade, however, demands for more elaborate and costly facilities on the part of owners and the increasingly limited resources of state and local governments have challenged the wisdom of this policy.

My stadium's better than your stadium.... "I'm not sure it's stadium envy as much as it is the machinery of state and local politics and getting politically potent people the things they want," said Rodney Fort, an economics professor at Washington State University who has co-written a book on stadium construction and politics of sports titled, "Hard Ball, The Abuse of Power in Pro Team Sports."

Rich People Versus Politicians: Legalized corruption is widespread and that's the job of 35,000 Washington, D.C., lobbyists earning millions upon millions of dollars. ... For the right price, a tax loophole, saving a company tens of millions of dollars, can be inserted into tax law, a la the Charlie Rangel scandal. At state levels, governors can award public works contracts to a generous constituent. At the local levels mayors can confer favors such as providing subsidies for sports stadia and convention centers. When politicians can give favors, they will find buyers.

Long Island-Area Voters Nix Stadium Subsidy Proposal. The owner of the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League threatened to move his team unless he receives hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer backing for a new stadium. Taxpayers in Long Island and surrounding Nassau County responded with a message that could be interpreted as, "Don't let the door hit you on the behind on your way out." Voters in August overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to borrow $400 million for the Islanders and their billionaire owner, Charles Wang. A minor league baseball stadium also would have been built. The vote was 57% to 43% against.

"The evidence suggests that attracting a professional sports franchise to a city and building that franchise a new stadium or arena will have no effect on the growth rate of real per capita income and may reduce the level of real per capita income in that city."

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— Dennis Coates and Brad R. Humphreys