Originally Posted by JHZR2
The thing that gets me isn't the cost of the events. That's a calculated risk that a city takes on to have exposure, culture, etc.
What gets me is the way the cities write bonds and build stadiums and facilities for these teams, to be paid by the taxpayers, and in many cases, these venues are torn down before the bonds are even paid off. So it's debt upon debt that doesn't get paid off.
I'm against universities giving sports scholarships, and cities building sporting venues on debt, at least if the existing venues aren't paid off.
I understood that MLB was upset with the San Francisco Giants because they financed their stadium on their own. Apparently didn't like the precedent that it set that governments shouldn't have to help finance it. Also the Golden State Warriors are privately financing their new arena in San Francisco. The Warriors and Oakland went into arbitration over whether or not they were obligated to pay the remaining $40 million liability on the bonds from the arena renovation from the late 90s. The Warriors argued that they no longer were liable for the debt repayment if they weren't playing there any more.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfran...e-warriors-arbitration-oracle-arena.html
That being said, I do remember when the Warriors offered to pay for the costs of their championship parades. Three of them so far.
And around here the Oakland Raiders are leaving for Las Vegas. My understanding is that the NFL owners didn't particularly like the idea, but the state of Nevada (it's not actually the city of Las Vegas at the site, but that's another story) is chipping in $750 million in stadium financing through hotel taxes.
The thing that gets me isn't the cost of the events. That's a calculated risk that a city takes on to have exposure, culture, etc.
What gets me is the way the cities write bonds and build stadiums and facilities for these teams, to be paid by the taxpayers, and in many cases, these venues are torn down before the bonds are even paid off. So it's debt upon debt that doesn't get paid off.
I'm against universities giving sports scholarships, and cities building sporting venues on debt, at least if the existing venues aren't paid off.
I understood that MLB was upset with the San Francisco Giants because they financed their stadium on their own. Apparently didn't like the precedent that it set that governments shouldn't have to help finance it. Also the Golden State Warriors are privately financing their new arena in San Francisco. The Warriors and Oakland went into arbitration over whether or not they were obligated to pay the remaining $40 million liability on the bonds from the arena renovation from the late 90s. The Warriors argued that they no longer were liable for the debt repayment if they weren't playing there any more.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfran...e-warriors-arbitration-oracle-arena.html
That being said, I do remember when the Warriors offered to pay for the costs of their championship parades. Three of them so far.
And around here the Oakland Raiders are leaving for Las Vegas. My understanding is that the NFL owners didn't particularly like the idea, but the state of Nevada (it's not actually the city of Las Vegas at the site, but that's another story) is chipping in $750 million in stadium financing through hotel taxes.
