How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers

[Capt Bringdown]

Taxpayers fund the stadiums, antitrust law doesn't apply to broadcast deals, the league enjoys nonprofit status, and commissioner Roger Goodell makes $30 million a year. It's time to stop the public giveaways to America's richest sports league - and to the feudal lords who own its teams.

Last year was a busy one for public giveaways to the National Football League. In Virginia, Republican Governor Bob McDonnell, who styles himself as a budget-slashing conservative crusader, took $4 million from taxpayers’ pockets and handed the money to the Washington Redskins, for the team to upgrade a workout facility. Hoping to avoid scrutiny, McDonnell approved the gift while the state legislature was out of session. The Redskins’ owner, Dan Snyder, has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $1 billion. But even billionaires like to receive expensive gifts.

Taxpayers in Hamilton County, Ohio, which includes Cincinnati, were hit with a bill for $26 million in debt service for the stadiums where the NFL’s Bengals and Major League Baseball’s Reds play, plus another $7 million to cover the direct operating costs for the Bengals’ field. Pro-sports subsidies exceeded the $23.6 million that the county cut from health-and-human-services spending in the current two-year budget (and represent a sizable chunk of the $119 million cut from Hamilton County schools). Press materials distributed by the Bengals declare that the team gives back about $1 million annually to Ohio community groups. Sound generous? That’s about 4 percent of the public subsidy the Bengals receive annually from Ohio taxpayers.

-- more -->> (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2013/10/how-the-nfl-fleeces-taxpayers/309448/)

[boutons_deux]

Bush takes credit for conceiving The Ballpark at Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers baseball team, which he bought in 1989 with a wealthy group of investors. Among them: billionaire Richard Rainwater of Fort Worth.

Bush invested just over $600,000, but Arlington taxpayers invested a lot more.

"It was $135 million worth of sales tax money," said attorney Glenn Sodd. "The city donated a good bit of land to the project. They got a sales tax exemption on all the items that were purchased for the stadium. We have a property tax in Texas and they were given as part of the deal a property tax exemption." A total of at least $200 million, according to Sodd.

two families whose property was seized for stadium parking. A jury found they were paid about one-seventh of what the land was worth.

The new, subsidized stadium turned out to be a great deal for Bush

when the team was sold last year Bush's share came to at least $14.9 million with perhaps another $1 million or $2 million still to come.

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/05/13/president.2000/jackson.bush/

public subsidy, private gain,

rhymes with:

private risk and gain, public pain (2008, AIG, Wall St, TARP, etc)

I can't find whether the Arlington tax payers got a penny back for their subsidies when the team+stadium were sold.

[TDMVPDPOY]

its bs how they get subsidized stadiums at the taxpayers expense, yet it is included as a asset on their balance sheets to prop up the teams net worth

[Blake]

The NFL is non-profit? Wut the fuck?

[DMX7]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/25/1241265/-Wait-the-NFL-is-a-non-profit-organization#

Absolutely ridiculous.

[boutons_deux]

And NPR interveiws Easterbrook
NFL's A Nonprofit? Author Says It's Time For Football Reform
http://media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/t/the-king-of-sports/9781250011718_custom-3acc746d5e472a3c8ed34a53a8e75e09c41ae9d7-s2-c85.jpg

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/24/225775287/nfls-a-nonprofit-author-says-its-time-for-football-reform

[boutons_deux]

NCAA, coaches, schools make $Ms, asst coaches makes $100Ks, and the NCAA players play for room and board (and often get away with rape and sexual assault).

[pgardn]

NCAA, coaches, schools make $Ms, asst coaches makes $100Ks, and the NCAA players play for room and board (and often get away with rape and sexual assault).

And get the chance for an 80K education while other students go to school and come out heavily in debt.
This is a huge chance they are given because they are athletically gifted. How many voice scholarships does the avg. D1 school offer? Use the institution if you think they are using you. When a person enters a job that requires maximum athletic conditioning, you know it's short term. Ballet, soccer, baseball, boxing, etc... all allow youngsters to enter professionally, where is the outcry when the kids choose these professions and get injured with nothing to fall back on?

And what price did the vast majority of the coaches and assistants do to get those salaries?

Play college football AND get a degree.