NBA: Anyone who blames the owners for the upcoming lockout is re ed

[baseline bum]

How many people do you know have ever taken a vacation to Baltimore?

I once went to an Orioles game while passing through while driving from New York. Does that count?

[baseline bum]

One thing people always forget about these contracts: while they're guaranteed deals, the dollar amount isn't quite guaranteed. Every player pays 10% of his salary into an escrow fund. If these high dollar contracts have pushed the players to getting a bigger than 51% share of the BRI, the difference between the amount they made and 51% of the BRI goes back to the owners, with the remaining paid back to the players. So the collective bargaining agreement has a built in safeguard that keeps total payout for the league from getting out of control.

[Caltex2]

So instead of the car rental/hotel tax going to public goods like new roads, better water treatment facilities, etc., it goes towards a new stadium so the local tax payers are paying more for infrastructure than they otherwise would be. That still sounds like a subsidy to me.

CN is right. The government shouldn't be involved, at all and at any level, with professional sports. It's a completely nonessential good the free market can effectively manage (and I'm by no stretch of the imagination a big believer in free market self regulation).

I also have a hard time believing cities like Baltimore and Cleveland (two cities with the most heavy stadium subsidies) are generating that much in tourism revenue. How many people do you know have ever taken a vacation to Baltimore?

If people want to fix the roads and improve schools, they still have that option through other bonds. Civic leaders have come up with a highly intelligent way to get sports stadiums built without fleecing their citizenry. And if you think having pro sports doesn't matter or isn't important, you're right to an extent but professionals like having entertainment options and having major pro sports is a way to keep and draw professionals as well as a way to garner publicity for places that people often would not think about otherwise, such as about half the Western Conference.

You don't really have a valid argument here. Those municipal issues can still be funded through the same channels and passing bonds that tax outsiders is supplemental, essentially taking nothing away from resident taxpayers. This method allows cities to bring in and retain luxuries such as sports teams and concerts without throwing their own citizens under the bus. Often times, they put and keep cities on the map (Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Orlando, etc...). Technically, it's a subsidy and cities shouldn't bend over to sports teams but this is the best way to go about it and is essentially harmless, even to the travellers, who pay the taxes with a drop in the bucket of their overall expenses on the trip.