To hell with the stadium stuff. City officials giving tax payers money to billionaires on something that never generates the revenue back. That’s way different on a tax break. I’m not a fan of them either since it doesn’t create a level playing field, but at least in most cases it makes sense.
You don't understand, the commissioners that vote in favor of such deals will usually get VIP boxes to all events in that stadium for the rest of their terms.
On the face of it, I am, or at least would be. For example, Knoxville desperately needs to do something with the Civic Coliseum/Auditorium. I think the place is such a shithole it needs to be torn down and replaced entirely. That said, given what we know about publicly financed arenas/stadiums, it wouldn’t be of much of deal for anybody but the million/billionaire owner of the team that would use it, so I’d vote no.
I get that. But it’s a clear conflict of interest, and should be prohibited, and if not by ethical standards, then law. Or better, both.
The pisser is, they will use tax payer money to finance these stadiums, then give tax breaks for all the money they make on sales on game days. Merchandise and concessions, some say, is where they make the money on game days.
Knoxville can decide to build a new civic Coliseum. and charge for its use, and have full control of its use and fees in perpetuity. to me, that isn't the same as building a pro team a fairly specific facility for their primary use where they dictate its availability for all other services. the scale of it is for the city, not for an international billion dollar brand.
That’s fair - and I agree. I should bave been more clear in saying that I don’t support any public financing of stadiums that will be privately owned. And the Civic Coloseum is a shit hole, and needs to be replaced, or at the very least gutted and completely renovated.