Public Subsidies for Sports Facilities America is in the midst of a sports construction boom. New sports facilities costing at least $200 million each have been completed or are under way in Baltimore, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Nashville, San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, D.C., and are in the planning stages in Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis, New York, and Pittsburgh. Major stadium renovations have been undertaken in Jacksonville and Oakland. Industry experts estimate that more than $7 billion will be spent on new facilities for professional sports teams before 2006. Most of this $7 billion will come from public sources. The subsidy starts with the federal government, which allows state and local governments to issue tax-exempt bonds to help finance sports facilities. Tax exemption lowers interest on debt and so reduces the amount that cities and teams must pay for a stadium. Since 1975, the interest rate reduction has varied between 2.4 and 4.5 percentage points. Assuming a differential of 3 percentage points, the discounted present value loss in federal taxes for a $225 million stadium is about $70 million, or more than $2 million a year over a useful life of 30 years. Ten facilities built in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Superdome in New Orleans, the Silverdome in Pontiac, the now-obsolete Kingdome in Seattle, and Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands, each cause an annual federal tax loss exceeding $1 million. State and local governments pay even larger subsidies than Washington. Sports facilities now typically cost the host city more than $10 million a year. Perhaps the most successful new baseball stadium, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, costs Maryland residents $14 million a year. Renovations aren't cheap either: the net cost to local government for refurbishing the Oakland Coliseum for the Raiders was about $70 million. Most large cities are willing to spend big to attract or keep a major league franchise. But a city need not be among the nation's biggest to win a national competition for a team, as shown by the NBA's Utah Jazz's Delta Center in Salt Lake City and the NFL's Houston Oilers' new football stadium in Nashville. Why Cities Subsidize Sports The economic rationale for cities' willingness to subsidize sports facilities is revealed in the campaign s... ... middle of paper ... ...vernments still pay for investments in supporting infrastructure, and Washington still pays an interest subsidy for the local government share. And the Charlotte case is unique. No other stadium project has raised as much private revenue. At the other extreme is the disaster in Oakland, where a supposedly break-even financial plan left the community $70 million in the hole because of cost overruns and disappointing PSL sales. Third, despite greater citizen awareness, voters still must cope with a scarcity of teams. Fans may realize that subsidized stadiums regressively redistribute income and do not promote growth, but they want local teams. Alas, it is usually better to pay a monopoly an exorbitant price than to give up its product. Prospects for cutting sports subsidies are not good. While citizen opposition has had some success, without more effective intercity organizing or more active federal antitrust policy, cities will continue to compete against each other to attract or keep artificially scarce sports franchises. Given the profound penetration and popularity of sports in American culture, it is hard to see an end to rising public subsidies of sports facilities.
Cowboys' new $1 billion stadium to keep hole in roof. (2006, December 13). ESPN.com. Retrieved April 7, 2014, from http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2695427
“Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve.” On 16th January 1920, one of the most common personal habits and customs of American society came to a halt. The eighteenth amendment was implemented, making all importing, exporting, transporting, selling and manufacturing of intoxicating liquors absolutely prohibited. This law was created in the hope of achieving the reduction of alcohol consumption, which in turn would reduce: crime, poverty, death rates, and improve both the economy, and the quality of life for all Americans. These goals were far from achieved. The prohibition amendment of the 1920's was ineffective because it was unenforceable. Instead, it caused various social problems such as: the explosive growth of organized crime, increased liquor consumption, massive murder rates and corruption among city officials. Prohibition also hurt the economy because the government wasn’t collecting taxes on the multi-billion dollar a year industry.
The total cost of the Cobb County stadium project is estimated to be $672 million dollars, which will consist of both public and private funds. The public funds will come from t...
Financial aspects and profitability of college athletic programs is one of the most important arguments involved in this controversy. A group of people expresses that college athletic programs are over emphasized. The point they show on the first hand, is that athletic programs are too expensive for community colleges and small universities. Besides, statistics prove that financial aspects of college athletic programs are extremely questionable. It is true that maintenance, and facility costs for athletic programs are significantly high in comparison to academic programs. Therefore, Denhart, Villwock, and Vedder argue that athletic programs drag money away from important academics programs and degrade their quality. According to them, median expenditures per athlete in Football Bowl Subdivision were $65,800 in 2006. And it has shown a 15.6 percent median expenditure increase fro...
Abstract: The Stadium construction boom continues, and taxpayers are being forced to pay for new high tech stadiums they don’t want. These new stadiums create only part-time jobs. Stadiums bring money in exclusively for professional leagues and not the communities. The teams are turning public money into private profit. Professional leagues are becoming extremely wealthy at the taxpayers expense. The publicly-funded stadium obsession must be put to a stop before athletes and coaches become even greedier. New stadiums being built hurt public schools, and send a message to children that leisure activities are more important than basic education. Public money needs to be used to for more important services that would benefit the local economy. Stadiums do not help the economy or save struggling towns. There are no net benefits from single purpose stadiums, and therefore the stadium obsessions must be put to a stop.
If the athletic department cannot raise enough money by themselves they can turn to long term tax exempt bonds to help offset the costs. A bond isn’t all that different from a loan in the sense that it is, in its most basic form, a contract to repay borrowed money with interest at fixed intervals. These bonds can be spread out up to Thirty years and in most cases will be paid back with ease. Other ways schools can pay for facilities are with student fees.
stadiums they play in is up for grabs. The four major sports are a playing
In Major League Baseball, stadiums can affect the game dramatically by the size and by the way the dirt is laid out and how the weather is as well. The baseball teams and players can be affected by this in their major life physically and mentally. Major League Baseball is a prominent organization in our daily life. The game is very important for most people. The game is a lifestyle to people as well. Baseball has changed over the years. For instance, Pete Palmer states, “The way baseball is playing right now is completely different from the past” (Palmer, summary, 2014). A very helping part of baseball are baseball stadiums. For example, ballparks of america says, “... ballparks are amazing, they help us play” (ballparks of america, summary,
In spring, the flowers bloom, in summer the sun beats hot, in the fall the leaves fall and flowers die, in the winter it gets colder. In Greek mythology they believed that Demeter was the cause of the seasonal changes. Demeter has an unusual family history, she went through many things that made her how they see her in Ancient Greece today. Demeter has many things that represent her as a goddess and that are considered to be sacred.
Prohibition created a great deal of problems in America even though it was trying to correct one. Prohibition was not widely supported by many people. Prohibition led to many changes in our country. Some were bad and some were good. The effects on America were mostly bad. The good effects included no one could drink and it could try and contain the effects of being drunk. Prohibition also kept many people out of trouble with the law. Puritans believed that alcohol had a terrible effect on people and that is why they supported prohibition. Prohibition was the start of a “dry” era and led to many people staying sober and not drinking alcohol at all. This was a good effect on those people and their lives. They were more focused on their lives and tried to stay healthy, by not drinking. This was not true f...
In 1846, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed to Congress that they ban slavery in all territories that might become part of the United States. This was called the Wilmot Proviso. The Wilmot Proviso caused great concern in the South and increased a great bitterness between the North and South.Many supporters of slavery viewed the Wilmot Proviso as an attack to end slavery by the North. The controversy over the Wilmot Proviso led to the arise of a new political party. Many Whigs and Democrats wanted to take a strong stand of the debate over slavery. They joined together to form a new party, the Free-Soil Party. The Free-Soil Party choose Martin Van Buren as its presidential candidate. Senator Lewis Cass also proposed a solution that he hoped with fix the argument. He suggested letting the people decide whether to allow slavery or not. Both Cass and Van Buren do poorly in the election, and General Zachary Taylor was elected as president.
...ave the freedm to make mistakes and have discussions and debates in a healthy setting where others can learn from each other, and be able to raise their voice without having to be worried by the idea of being bullied. He strongly believed in having the freedom to develop your own personality and having the strength to make choices. Mills is only able to see progress in society if we enter a world of culture, free conformity, and harm. We must be given the right to free expression, freedom and the right to liberty without the fear of threat or being silenced. It’s because of these justifications that mill believes that mankind would not be justified in silencing an individual just like that one inidivdual, if given the power to do so, would not be justified in silencing all of mankind. Through these actions, we as humans will create the ultimate gaood for mankind.
Rossetti first challenges society’s ostracism of fallen women through her portrayal of not only streetwalkers and sinners but also loving sisters. Each sister is a definite contrast to the other. Lizzie is presented as more accountable than Laura and more resistant to temptation. When the goblin men tempt the girls with buying their “fruit forbidden” (479), Lizzie “[thrusts her] dimpled finger[s]/ In each ear, shuts [her] eyes and [runs]” whereas “Laura [chooses] to linger” (67-69). Laura appears more curious of the two and, therefore, the more likely to give int...
Overall, the Prohibition was an experimental and learning period of time for the United States of America. The government was convinced that it could possibly solve many of the societal problems in the U.S. This resulted in them passing the 18th Amendment and The Volstead Act, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of liquor. Due to this, gangsters and mobsters ruled the Alcohol Industry. When citizens and government realized this Prohibition was not having the positive benefits they expected, the 21st Amendment was passed, repealing the prohibition and returning America’s favorite pass time to them.
Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” compares the two main Victorian views towards women. One of them is represented by Lizzie who despite the attempts of the men to tempt her to consume the goblin fruit remains pure and innocent. The other view is represented by Laura who eats the goblin