The Next Logical Step in Stadium Welfare

Matt Welch | October 29, 2009

"[B]uilding a stadium during an economic crisis to house a team that doesn't exist."

Reason on stadium welfare here.

Comments

Mango Punch|10.29.09 @ 3:54PM|#

well, is it "shovel ready"?

|10.29.09 @ 4:01PM|#

[B]uilding a stadium during an economic crisis to house the Vikingsa team that doesn't exist. because no way is Minneapolis building yet another stadium.

John Tagliaferro|10.29.09 @ 4:02PM|#

Obama can draft players into service and make a voluntary team. We can call them The Enlightned.

Thinking the general manager can be a Czar, but coaches would be GS-12 through 15.

juris imprudent|10.29.09 @ 10:53PM|#

Well, Norv Turner is a ready-made GS13.

Zeb|10.29.09 @ 4:13PM|#

So, are there still people who still believe the crap about government subsidies for stadiums being anything other than a massive rip-off of taxpayers, or is everyone involved in such transactions just in on the scam?

juris imprudent|10.29.09 @ 10:55PM|#

There are scads of them - mostly those who swaddle themselves in jerseys and jockstraps. Down here in North Tijuana we got a major case of "oh noes, the NFL will leave town if we don't builds them a new stadium".

Richard |10.29.09 @ 4:21PM|#

Just be grateful that Chicago didn't get the Olympics. Oooo, the cronies who must have taken a bath on that one.

|10.29.09 @ 4:29PM|#

Hell, I thought I saw that some of Obama's White House staff had been buying up property in Chicago to compete in the Olympic Flipping event.

BakedPenguin|10.29.09 @ 11:49PM|#

After making sure it wasn't in the areas to be designated as 'blighted'.

Juvenal|10.29.09 @ 4:26PM|#

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

|10.29.09 @ 4:31PM|#

Excellent! We tried to ship the Seahawks down to kali in the 90's and they refused to go. Now we've got another chance. I'm going to start accepting donations for U-haul rental.

dfd|10.29.09 @ 6:52PM|#

Heh. Nice try, but the Seahawks aren't going anywhere. Not with Paul Allen and his new stadium up there. Your chance to get rid of them was missed when you demolished that concrete monstrosity that was the King Dome to build Qwest Field.

Doggie Style|10.29.09 @ 4:35PM|#

Is that bing.com picture a dog getting ready to fuck a man or is it the other way around?

Steven Smith|10.29.09 @ 4:38PM|#

1. Most, if not all, of the money for the new stadium will be coming from private investors, not the public, so this isn't a case of corporate welfare victimizing Angelenos;

2. If a new stadium is built, UCLA will almost certainly move in. The Bruins, believe it or not, have a football team, albeit a very mediocre one.

Doggie Style|10.29.09 @ 5:04PM|#

PLEASE DON'T ASS RAPE ME! AAAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

juris imprudent|10.29.09 @ 10:57PM|#

Yeah, and Pasadena is way more out of the way to Westwood then the ass end of the San Gabriel valley.

Number 6|10.29.09 @ 5:04PM|#

Meh. I sent you guys a couple of notes when Kansas City built a new arena for a team that didn't exist (and still doesn't). Hell, the story even came with rampant eminent domain abuse and the complicity of the local fishwrap.
I guess it's only interesting when LA does it.

Geotpf|10.29.09 @ 6:17PM|#

...and it's not even LA. It's the City of Industry, which, as the article correctly points out, is really, really weird. Basically, almost nobody lives in the city, and the few who do also all also work for the city. So that also means all the voters in the city also work for it. So every vote always ends up with numbers that would make Saddam Hueissen or the Soviet Union blush.

The only reason this form of government works is that the City of Industry allows any polluting heavy industry to locate there (hence the name of the city). So the factory owners are very willing to put up with a mini royal kingdom in exchange to not be bothered by city inspectors. Well, the royal kingdom wants a stadium (as far as I can tell, the only public funding is from a City of Industry bond issue), so they get a stadium, paid for by taxes from a bunch of lead smelters and oil refineries.

juris imprudent|10.29.09 @ 10:58PM|#

Isn't Commerce or Carson about the same?

MJ|10.29.09 @ 7:12PM|#

"The deal was celebrated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as both environmentally friendly and fiscally responsible"

That's funny.Environmentalists protested the waiver of state environmental laws, despite Schwarzenegger's assurances that a new stadium is practically a rain forest and despite Roski's repeated use of the word "green." "

That's hilarious!

"Beware, fans of the...Buffalo Bills..."

Fuck you, Schwarzenegger.

"

Rhywun|10.29.09 @ 8:31PM|#

I think the Bills will stay in Buffalo. The region would sell its soul to keep them there. Hell, probably has already.

|10.29.09 @ 8:57PM|#

I think so too, but not because of anything WNY does to keep them there. Their soul isn't worth much these days.

What will keep the Bills in Buffalo is the Canadian government's stick up its mountie about allowing competition with CFL teams.

|10.29.09 @ 11:12PM|#

I understand the Devil is offering second mortgages on souls at least if a city is willing to build a new arena/stadium/ball park.

What I would prefer is that instead of a secret ballot, all the initiatives for these projects require a public ballot committing those voting yes to personally guarantee and cover any losses with their own funds.

creech|10.30.09 @ 11:56AM|#

Excellent proposal.
And with every half-assed city proposing "minor league stadiums" too, we may be able to bankrupt the very people who think these are good investments.