Taxpayers Pay for Multi-million Dollar Sport Teams

[barbaro]

Lots of talk of "socialism" in the US recently. As usual, a lot of the socialism goes to the MIC and corporations, which include, multi-billion dollar sport teams.

This is so ridiculous that it's worthy of its own thread.

I'll put up more examples, including one from my home-town.

In Stadium Building Spree, U.S. Taxpayers Lose $4 Billion
By Aaron Kuriloff and Darrell Preston - Sep 6, 2012

New York Giants fans will cheer on their team against the Dallas Cowboys at tonight’s National Football League opener in New Jersey. At tax time, they’ll help pay for the opponents’ $1.2 billion home field in Texas.

That’s because the 80,000-seat Cowboys Stadium was built partly using tax-free borrowing by the City of Arlington. The resulting subsidy comes out of the pockets of every American taxpayer, including Giants fans. The money doesn’t go directly to the Cowboys’ billionaire owner Jerry Jones. Rather, it lowers the cost of financing, giving his team the highest revenue in the NFL and making it the league’s most-valuable franchise.

“It’s part of the corruption of the federal tax system,” said James Runzheimer, 67, an Arlington lawyer who led opponents of public borrowing for the structure known locally as “Jerry’s World.” “It’s use of government funds to subsidize activity that the private sector can finance on its own.”

Jones is one of dozens of wealthy owners whose big-league teams benefit from millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies. Michael Jordan’s Charlotte, North Carolina, Bobcats basketball team plays in a municipal bond-financed stadium, the Time Warner Cable Arena, where the Democratic Party is meeting this week. The Republicans last week used Florida’s Tampa Bay Times Forum, also financed with tax-exempt debt. It is the home of hockey’s Lightning, owned by hedge-fund manager Jeffrey Vinik. None of the owners who responded would comment.

Entire: In Stadium Building Spree, U.S. Taxpayers Lose $4 Billion - Bloomberg

[slackula]

The RNC was held in an arena that was 62% financed by taxpayer money!

Tampa Bay Times Forum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[barbaro]

The RNC was held in an arena that was 62% financed by taxpayer money!

Tampa Bay Times Forum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for this gc.

Americans just get screwed in every direction. And of course, more hypocrisy by the GOP.