Good News, Bad News on Stadium Welfare

Matt Welch | January 13, 2006

The bad (and unsurprising) news: The billionaire boys' club that runs Major League Baseball is demanding five new publicly financed stadiums, and in some cases the use of eminent domain to clear ground for them. The good (and somewhat surprising) news is that lawmakers from insecure burgs like Portland, Oregon and Kansas City are telling the welfare queens to get stuffed. Updates here.

Reason's lineup of sports-welfare critics includes Daniel McGraw, Jacob Sullum, your humble Angels fan, Jonathan Rauch, and Rick Henderson, for starters.

Comments

|1.13.06 @ 1:38PM|#

Do people still watch baseball?

How cute.

|1.13.06 @ 2:11PM|#

In San Diego, the Chargers seemed to be trying to hide the cost by offering to build a stadium themselves, on land swapped from the city. Problem? The land is worth $500 million. Put in dollar terms rather than acres it suddenly looks like the huge giveaway that it is.

Fortunately, the threat of them leaving is being met with a yawn. I think people here are willing to try to keep them here, but not too hard.

R C Dean|1.13.06 @ 2:30PM|#

No one knows if it was simple bureaucratic incompetence or an actual principled stand, but the City of Dallas declined to bend over and lube up it nether orifice for the Cowboys last year when they were shopping around their new stadium.

As a result, the Cowboys are off to Arlington, which bought the usual load of bilge about the economic benefits of having a stadium, even though they already have the Texas Ranger stadium and haven't seen any of the purported benefits from that.

|1.13.06 @ 3:44PM|#

The only good thing Massachusetts' corrupt, indicted, righty former House Speaker ever did was slap the Patriots' owners' hand when they reached for public money. They threatened to go to Hartford, he called their bluff, the Hartford deal fell through, and Gillette Stadium was built with the team's money. The result? The Patriots are one of the most lucrative teams in the NFL, so much so that that same owner is complaining about having his income redistributed by the profit-sharing system. Which is kind of funny, when you think about it.

So, in conclusion, Denver sucks, and the latest nobody to line up in their backfield is going to end up with a Bruschi-shaped bruise on his chest.

R C Dean|1.13.06 @ 3:54PM|#

Is there a better name for a linebacker than "Brewski"?

He oughta play for the Packers, with a handle like that.

|1.13.06 @ 3:57PM|#

What did MLB expect after publicly claiming their advanced media enterprises are worth billions.

|1.13.06 @ 4:55PM|#

Is it just me, or was that article nearly unreadable:

"Of course we speak of the man with the two Biblical names: David Samson (how about Knee-High-mi-ah or Bildad the Shoe-Height instead?) "No" is a smaller word than "yes," and Samson has been hearing the former more than the ladder [struck out] latter. As Leave-us and Butt-high do America, the latest episode in their �no�-madic journey blah blah blah blah blah ..."

What...? Is this how baseball people talk?

|1.13.06 @ 5:02PM|#

There is no continuing legal agreement for the Twins to play in the Metrodome beyond 2006.

"Metrodome"?! Hopefully, they'll get the public to pay for a new stadium with a *proper name*, like 3M Dome or US Bancorp Field.

|1.13.06 @ 5:43PM|#

They have been complaining about the Metrodome for so many years, while both the Vikings and Twins continue to field teams that, while not consistently brilliant, are more successful than not. That city single handedly shows that a crappy venue in a small market works just fine. I'll be laughing my ass off when they're both still playing there 20 years from now.

|1.13.06 @ 8:56PM|#

'Is there a better name for a linebacker than "Brewski"?

He oughta play for the Packers, with a handle like that.'

Or the Steelers, if he spelled it "Brczki."

|1.15.06 @ 12:21PM|#

"So, in conclusion, Denver sucks, and the latest nobody to line up in their backfield is going to end up with a Bruschi-shaped bruise on his chest."

joe,

How does that crow pie taste? Looks like the Patriots will be watching the play-offs with the rest of us, as fans, not participants. MMMM pie.

|1.15.06 @ 7:52PM|#

Well cliff, you have to admit, Denver DID suck, and their backs DID get stuffed.

They just happened to suck second worst. ;-)

|1.16.06 @ 2:22PM|#

I Live In Minneapolis. And from my thirtieth floor office window, I can see where the proposed stadium will go.

I do not follow the Twins and haven't been to a game in years (went with my sister back in 2002). But I know the community well (20 year resident) and am certain, that even though it is a form of corporate welfare (a benefit also provided by this city to the Target Corporation, Whole foods, countless condo developers and others), building a stadium will benefit the city in many ways, not all capturable as an entry on a balance sheet.

It's a quality of life issue.