CatdickBojangleshttps://econreview.berkeley.edu/the-economics-of-sports-stadiums-does-public-financing-of-sports-stadiums-create-local-economic-growth-or-just-help-billionaires-improve-their-profit-margin/
Thank you for this lol. It's so dumb and clearly the result of lobbying local elected officials who sign off on this shit. Now if there was a contract where the government received payments until their initial investment was returned, with interest, then it would be a good idea. Otherwise it's a freebie.
Could you imagine walking into city hall and asking for money to build a business and then never having to pay it back? That's the greatest business plan ever because you never have to pay it back.
Local governments have money to build stadiums but take a year to replace a street light. People shit their pants when we had a vaccine lottery but are blind and somehow OK with spending fortunes on sports stadiums. Fucking columbus gave $146 million in unrestricted spending money for a new Crew Stadium because the owner threatened to move, and close to $750mil for the entire downtown project. Additionally they gave them some of the land for free in prime downtown real estate. Like what the fuck.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2020/10/18/no-financial-reports-tax-money-spent-columbus-crew-new-soccer-stadium-mls/3639934001/
And another thing I've noticed is if you have enough money and lobbying power you can literally do anything. A downtown hospital is putting in a new building but there's not enough room without going into neighborhoods.... So the city and state have literally rerouted the highway at the center of I-70/I-71 interchange to make room. Construction for two fucking years.
And money and power influence everything. There's a select group of people who run this city behind the scenes. All the rich folks in columbus sit on the boards of all sorts of businesses here, and the boards of course make the financial decisions. I remember being shocked to learn that my business plan for extra FTEs for my department eventually had to be approved by the fucking wexners. Like come on man.
Sorry for the thread derail. Ignore me y'all. Rant over.
