It appears that once you use public money for the stadiums, the ownership of such stadiums SHOULD be a public entity.

What adds insult to injury with taxpayers being forced to pay for stadiums, is that those same taxpayers have to pay to enter the stadiums that they were forced to pay for.

I live in Seattle, and there was once a meme I saw posted on a bus stop: $1 billion for a new stadium: *Spongebob pulls out his wallet* $150 million for a comprehensive public transportation system: *Spongebob recoils in disgust* How very true.

This has been going on for decades. When the taxpayers funding these stadiums can't even afford tickets to events there... I believe that's a good example of irony. This has to stop. Thank you, Mr. Reich, for bringing up this issue.

If they want a new stadium, they should build it themselves... obviously they have the money. Yet ANOTHER example of corporate welfare. Who's railing against that? Yet, cut social safety nets?

San Diego did the smart thing when the Chargers tried to pull this. You'll move the team? Schools need funding; don't let the door hit you on the way out.

I’ve been b**ching about this for years. Thank you for calling this crap out!

I'm a business graduate and really wish more people would start addressing these types of loopholes. Thank you Robert for shining a light on these corruptible elements.

This is called "corporate welfare"...

This is spot on, we shouldn't have to subsidize stadiums for ultra wealthy billionaires.

Robert missed the dropping of the other shoe. Professional sports wasn't happy just preventing the average person from attending the games at the stadium. I remember when they tore down the affordable Shea stadium that critics said that Joe 6 pack would be priced out of the new stadium and Mets management said that was exactly their plan. The second shoe to drop was taking the ball games off of network television. Most of us did not notice the impact of this because the price to watch sports became part of our basic cable package, resulting in doubling of our cable bill. Customers were not given the option of opting out of professional sports coverage. This was not really clear to me until I cancelled my $200 basic cable plan and went WIFI only. That when I learned that just to watch the Mets would cost me $75 a month. If I also wanted to watch the Yankees that would be additional $75 a month. Not only can the average citizen not afford to watch professional sports at the stadium, he can no longer afford to watch it on television.

Back in 2008, my parents treated themselves, me, my spouse, and our son to a Panthers game when the Broncos came to town. Five tickets cost us nearly $400.00 by themselves. We spent money on gas there and back, $20.00 for parking (cheap!!), $30.00 for lunch for three (inflated since it was so close to the stadium), about $20.00 for two foam fingers, and about $40.00 for a hot dog, a few burgers, and stadium cup sodas. We haven't been to see any major league teams since then, because we just can't afford it. And then you get into how expensive apparel and other memorabilia is these days. Jerseys typically start around $130.00, caps are $30.00-$40.00, t-shirts are anywhere from $20.00-$40.00, hoodies are $40.00-$85.00, and on and on. And, if you root for an out-of-market team, you can expect to shell out Eben more money for a team package. Expecting me and the other Grabowski's to foot the bill for a plush stadium that we cannot afford to attend all while the owners who are of means get to reap all the rewards is BS. It's going to continue until we stop cheering for these teams and stop buying their merchandise. It's why the Raiders fans in Oakland and Chargers fans in San Diego told the Davis's and Spanos's, "Piss off. Move the team. I don't care anymore. I am SO done with you." And it's why the A's can't get anyone to show up for their home games anymore. And it's why the people in St. Louis have no further interest in yet another NFL team. You want to threaten to leave unless I agree to raise my taxes all to build a newer stadium even less affordable than the current overpriced venue? I am going to tell you to pound sand. This garbage is going to continue until we the fans finally revolt and tell the owners to pony up their own money for their team's stadium.

I remember John Oliver did a piece on this very thing years ago on LWT. Thank you for what you do Dr. Reich.

I was living in Arizona when that stadium was being built. I didn't agree with it at all. We were all paying for it, yet only people with money could actually afford to enjoy it.

Back when I lived in the District of Columbia, I was so proud of my city's government for finally saying NO to Jack Kent Cooke, who was trying to ripoff D.C. taxpayers for a ton of money to either renovate or rebuild RFK stadium when he could damn well afford to pay for it himself the owner of things like the LA Lakers and the Chrysler Building in Manhattan for just a start. Lots of people were really pissed at city officials when JKC packed up his marbles and moved the team to suburban Maryland. I was glad because at least we didn't let him get away again with ripping off District taxpayers like when he blocked off a public alley and turned it into a private driveway, and eventually was granted legal ownership even after other residents of the neighborhood complained. No one should have the power to confiscate public property without permission and without paying for it. I'm glad the city didn't let him rip us off again with the new RFK Stadium which he was pushing DC residents to pay for. Screw that!

The only winners, are billionaires... Wow! That applies to so much in the good old USA. Bless you Professor. Thanks!

Having lived and worked in Glendale, I can tell you that State Farm Stadium has not benefited the people of Glendale. Next door at Gila River Arena, the AZ Coyotes NHL team used rent delinquency as a negotiating tactic to get a different Phoenix suburb (Tempe) to offer up a brand new multimillion arena/entertainment district on the glitzy shores of Tempe Town Lake, pending referendum approval. Glendale's downtown has only gotten more blighted since construction, not even hosting Super Bowl events. The municipal sales tax has been maxed out to pay for the stadium subsidies, prompting commercial development to choose other lower tax suburbs. Even renters pay for the stadium bc rent has sales tax applied. The city lacks money to hire basic numbers of first responders, so other cities pitch in for security and medical coverage on game days, which number far fewer than the ones where the colossal stadium sits empty and idle. There was a plan to extend light rail to Glendale, but the city council voted to abandon their contribution bc they were unwilling/unable to simultaneously fund bus and rail service.

The same people that say, "government does not work" aid the wealthy at the expense of the general welfare. Any other actions would be country of their core beliefs.

Appreciate Professor Reich's ability to break down economic issues in brief video format. I think one other important example of physical infrastructure to mention is HIGH SPEED INTERNET ACCESS, in addition to MASS TRANSIT, AFFORDABLE HOUSING, and PUBLIC HOSPITALS & SCHOOLS (not only did California's Madera County lose 700 good paying jobs when its only acute care hospital recently closed, that population is now at least a 30-minute drive away from the closest hospital with an emergency room).

John Oliver did a special on this topic a couple years ago as well and it truly is ridiculous how the owners are not made to invest in upkeep or upgrades of their own companies but rather blackmail the cities and tax payers to do it for them.

Just another reason why I'm not a huge fan of any professional sports teams.

As someone who cares nothing about any “sports” My tax dollars should not be used for something I want nothing to do with.

We must also realize how public schools are used as the recruitment ladders for players for these teams. Young people are pitted against each other and against the young people from adjacent towns bashing their brains out on the gridiron of a so-called public school system.

Big time college sports is just as Nefarious, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. I live in CT, our state university, UCONN, is actually a great school & research center (as a civil engineer working for the CTDOT, I partnered with their research arm on several cutting edge endeavors), but their leadership's behavior when it comes to big time sports is right up there in taking instructions from the Rich Uncle Pennybags playbook. They convinced the State to build them a new basketball arena back in the 1990's, which did pay off with 4 national championships for the men, & too many to count for the women. Then in the early 2000's they then strong armed the state into building one of the WORST state funded projects ever conceived - "Rentschler Field at Pratt & Whitney" - it is neither on campus, nor in an urban center (Hartford), nor anywhere near any sort of public transportation, but built on a former airport at the defense contractor's main factory complex (don't you think that should have been reserved in case we need more DEFENSE CONTRACTING?!?!?!? Hellooooo!!!!!!! Russia!!!! Chyna!!!!!!). Naturally, surrounded by a sea of asphalt parking lots. In which the Prudes who run most of New England don't allow tailgating. & for which the UCONN football team has continued to SUCK DONKEY BALLS for decades. We did get The Rolling Stones once, & Bruce Springsteen twice. Then the NIMBY's & BANANA's (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) wealthy adjacent towns complained about the noise - NO MORE CONCERTS!!!!! So this Edifice to Waste sits there empty the other 340 days of the year (no, the local soccer league did not want to play there as, duh!, it's remote from the city & there's no public transportation). I don't even want to know what the Big Time Sports Welfare looks like in places where college football is Worshipped, like GA & AL & MS. I'm sure the locals are PROUD AS PIGS BEING LED TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE to fully fund their hero's.

The world needs more Robert Reichs.

Been saying this for years, since Indy built their mega stadium when the old one was still not payed for, rolling it over like an auto loan scam

I’m so proud to be part of the group that helped push the Spanos family out of San Diego. No regrets.

I've never understood the concept; "Hey give me your money to build my thing, then I'm going to charge you to come and visit my thing". Thankfully, Seattle bucked this trend by forcing the owner's group of the Kraken to pay for the retrofit of Key Arena (rebranded Climate Pledge Arena) with private investment. $0 dollars of public money was funded for it. Now, ONLY the people patronizing the Kraken and/or Climate Pledge Arena (the users) are paying that back. THAT is how it's done.

There are already rumblings that the new owners of the Broncos (Walmart family) are going to want a new stadium sooner rather than later. The current Mile High stadium opened in 2001. It's not even 25 years old. 🙄

John Oliver also did a great job covering this subject.

This makes me proud to be a Packer fan. We voluntarily buy no par, no vote stock to fund our team, not a penalty to taxpayers who aren't fans or do not benefit.

Being a former employee of my local county government for 29 years I saw this first hand. We had 2 MLB teams spring training facilities in our county. The short story is all the spring training teams in Florida add about 1% in tax revenue during the historically busiest tourist season and they are only there about 8 weeks. The county built one team a new stadium about 10 years ago to keep the team from moving left the local city government which built the original stadium still on the hook with a $20,000,000.00 mortgage.

I remember when Red McCombs did that scam in San Antonio to get a new stadium for the Spurs. Yes, I lived there at that time, and I couldn't believe that he got it! It's an abuse of the procurement process, public funds, and a form of blackmail in my opinion. (ianal)

Greed destroys everything.

Gov DeWine (R) from Ohio and his family owns the Asheville, NC triple A team The Tourists. Our McCormick field is no longer acceptable to Gov DeWine and he is threatening to move the team. This is small time potatoes compared to Arizona, Seattle, Oakland, Chicago or any of the other large population/media markets. Even though it is much smaller the DeWine family is following the same playbook as you outline in this video. There is much sentimental attachment to McCormick field as it has had a team play here since 1897, Babe Ruth once hit a home run here and Crash's record breaking home run in the movie "Bull Durham" was filmed here. Never the less helping the DeWine family build their dream stadium is not getting support from the populace. I think we all know they could probably afford to build ten replacement stadiums without our support. The DeWine family likes grifting off of public funds as they received $189k from the Paycheck Protection Program during COVID.

They can take every damn team away, including the ones I like. None of them is worth a penny of tax money.

I'm hopeful that middle and lower class Americans will soon come to understand that the pain, anxiety, and stress they endure by the hands of corporate and government greed can be changed if we all agree to stand together and demand dignity from the capitalists.

Thanks for this. It's helpful as when we hear this on the news, a voice in our heads will remind us of the truth behind it.

I have said the exact same thing and feel the same way, what a monopoly & what a disservice to taxpayers and their communities!

I've never been more proud of my hometown than when we said "K BYE" to the Chargers.

By the way, this is also done in college sports, except that they do it through increases in tuition, which is why college is so damned expensive these days, even if you have no interest in sports, and are there for an actual education. Maybe there should be a law that colleges fund their sports teams through something other than tuition?

As usual Robert, you're absolutely right..

It has been shown that disposable income is limited when people spend on sporting events the less money spent on other things. No benefit to society ...money isn't created out of thin air.

This needs to be played during half time of the Super Bowl 🏈! I am by no means a football fan and never have been.

3:05 hit hard. A depressing realization about the state of our nation.

Green Bay should be the rule NOT the exception, socialism can be good, very good, beats corporate fascism every time.

Thanks Robert. Finally, someone talking turkey about the rich turkeys that continue to pluck the feathers of us average birds.

This is spot on, privatisation of profits and nationalisation of liabilities. This rule book is used around the world and the best would be to privatise the stadiums and make the codes own them in larger cities as they have sufficient funds to own, manage and operate. Sport is such a sink for public funds and the real beneficiaries are the players, teams, and owners. The rest of us pay it through taxes, high fees, and high costs of goods and services.

Same thing is happening with the Arizona Coyotes at the moment. Glendale gave them the boot so now they’re playing in Tempe, using ASUs new hockey facility while trying to get the tax payers to fund a new arena for their awful team.

In Minneapolis, when the fat cats wanted the public to build them a stadium, it was made a referendum which taxpayers overwhelmingly shot down many times. But guess what? They went ahead and started digging the hole anyway. They knew that they were going to get their [our] money. Well, that stadium became obsolete and now we have a new debacle for taxpayers to pay for. How long will this one remain viable?

As someone who couldn't care less about sports and has never set foot inside a stadium, I believe I am owed a tax refund.

I've been on this soapbox for years! Hopefully people will realize they aren't investing in their "home team." They are increasing in a corporation that makes billionaire owners rich because we foot the bills.

Reminds me of casinos... great for economic growth, say the owners. Meanwhile someone still has to pay for the lights while amassing substantial wealth.

I have lots of comments: 1) having watched the Raiders repeatedly fleece the city of Oakland, then LA, then Oakland and now Las Vegas, leaving each city with a pile of debt and a rotting stadium, I am amazed at the public's gullibility; 2) Oakland is now about to enrich the Oakland Athletics owner by funding a huge stadium, AND privately owned housing projects on both the coliseum site and around a new stadium site, that takes valuable port resources out of production. The new site is remote from BART and all other public transportation, which will be an issue that I am sure the team will expect Oakland and Alameda County to solve. Oakland never learns; 3) I had a ringside seat when the Buffalo Bills negotiated a stadium in the 1970's. Two Erie County legislators (Pordum and Ludera) were convicted of bribery (and went to prison) for choosing remote East Aurora over the Transit Road site. Nonetheless after their prison terms they were BOTH re-elected. Stadiums are ripe opportunities for corruption. I hear that Buffalo and Erie County have built the Bill's yet another new stadium at taxpayers expense. Yuch! 4) the name "49'ers" is associated with San Francisco. Now that the football team is in Santa Clara, shouldn't they be the Santa Clara Techies or Silicons? Or if they want a name associated with the founding of Santa Clara, how about the Santa Clara Friars or Apricot Farmers?

Mr. Reich, I couldn't agree more and I've felt this way for several decades. Thank you!

They're doing that in Nashville.... The Titans want a newer stadium now... after the city built them one when they left Houston (remember, they were the Oilers then) for the SAME DAMN REASON. And they're gonna GET IT.

Anyone notice how many teams tend to do well when the stadium opens, but then seem to go back to being mediocre a couple of years later?

1:23 Even the Packers threatened to play more games in Milwaukee when they wanted a new stadium. We ended up paying a .5% sales tax for the stadium construction. The county government kept the sales tax around after the sales tax expired. The packers needed another expansion after the first, and tried to have the sales tax expanded again. They failed, and instead sold more “stock” and paid for it that way. The county residents where spouse to get access to tickets also. There is a lottery, and you have to buy 4 $120 tickets for a game you can’t choose. They just reduced the number of tickets available in the program because nobody was buying them anymore. So even the Packers play these billionaire games with the public’s money.

Never underestimate the capacity of the citizenry to do what is in their least best interest.

Here in Portland, we don't even _have_ an MLB team, but we've been saturated by a media blitz to split the bill on a new $2 Billion baseball stadium. A plan still digging it's claws into city Government. It won't stop. A. Growing as we are, we're not _that_ big of a town to begin with, so the bill would be $6000+ per taxpayer. B. We already have the MODA center (NBA Trailblazers) and Providence Park (Timbers). Edit: C. We're not much of a Baseball town to begin with.

In Chicago if the White Sox don't get a certain level of attendance the tax payer has to make up the difference, and now the bears want a new stadium in the suburbs, the bears can afford to build there own stadium, if they want to leave let them, they won't get a fan base like they have here, the middle class support's the whole world, it's time for the rich guy's to pony up and pay there share instead of always asking for handouts and tax breaks

Yup. Pittsburgher here. Triple play here: Pirates, Steelers, Penguins.

My friend and I have been saying this about stadiums for years! Let the teams move to new cities -- and maybe all cities will learn the lesson and tell the owners to build their own damn stadiums!

I have always hated how companies can buy a stadium, change the name, and then expect us all to call it the new name. I don't know what Gillette Stadium in MA was called before but I bet it was just another company name. We just called it Foxboro stadium because that's where it is. Like, the billionaire is subsidized in its construction, then further reduces expenses by charging another company to put its name on it.

Ah. In time for the Super Bowl. And so many of the events have been going on in downtown Phoenix and old town Scottsdale, instead of Glendale, as Glendale doesn’t even have the facilities for those events. Glendale doesn’t have much in terms of mass transit near the stadium (the light rail line doesn’t even come close to Glendale, and the stadium is only served with 1 bus route that only has a bus every 30 minutes, and the nearest stop isn’t even that close to the stadium). The light rail line does go through downtown Phoenix and connects to the airport, though buses are needed to connect the line to old town Scottsdale, which actually has somewhat decent bus service.

And if you’re the local politician that actually tells the sports owner to go pound sand, you’re a demon and out the door.

I was P.O. when renting a vehicle at SeaTac and saw a fee/tax contributing to a new stadium. I went to the Kingdome once, it still wasn't paid for at the time the new stadium was being built. I suspect I will never get to a newer stadium I helped pay for.

The Arizona Cardinals began in Chicago but moved to St. Louis in 1960. When STL wouldn’t build them a stadium they left for Arizona in 1988. Then the Rams moved from LA to STL to fill the stadium we built in the hopes of landing an expansion team. Three decades later the Rams returned to LA.

I remember when the Spanos family tried to strong arm San Diego to build them a new stadium. They just wanted sit in sky boxes we paid for 🤷‍♂️

I'm also kind of sick of paying for municipal golf courses, too!

Great job, reporting this.

More welfare for billionaires! Thanks for this expose! Now what can be done to stop this scam?

Interesting how the stadium is publicly funded, but State Farm gets its name on it.

This really started in earnest with the Baltimore Colts. The city and state refused to give them money for a stadium, and they literally moved to Indianapolis in the middle of the night. Ever since then, people have been so spooked about a move that far too many municipalities give in for fear of relocation. European soccer stadiums are paid for entirely by the team, and they do just fine. What's really frustrating is that, as long as this is decided on the local level, if someone gives in, that ruins it for everyone else.

"One of the few realms of collective identity we have left" The most important quote of this whole video. This is how we justify it.

The Sacramento Kings are in their 3rd Arena since moving into town.

Finally, somebody stated my exact feelings! Many of the stadium deals are even more egregious than the one portrayed here.

Jacksonville is currently going through this. I'm so tired of this scam when we're overcrowded with no traffic solutions.

This also applies to attracting "businesses" with tax breaks .

I have been saying this for years. Nobody listens. Even here in Green bay where the team is nominally people owned.

The Bidwell’s told St. Louis that if they would agree to built them a 70,000 seat domed football stadium maybe they would keep their team there. They never intended to stay.

Yeah…I could not have been a bigger sports fan for the first 30 years of my life, and I still follow things pretty closely, but you’re absolutely right-there’s not an owner in all of pro sports that couldn’t have a state of the art, windfall-profitable stadium built in a month or less without public funding. They do it because they can, and we let them. It’s sickening how minimal the amount of action is taken within the pro sports leagues that actually prioritizes the fans.

In Howard Cosells " I never played the game " he describes this and other money schemes perpetrated by the NFL . I took the course SPORTS AND THE LAW with him as my Professor .

It sad enough this happens in the states as well as college stadiums. Tax payers should never pay for any owner to build their stadium. Then the money they make from concessions makes them even more. Yet we have homeless, families struggling, yes this money could be used in every form of infrastructure.

Thank you Robert. Same story in Baltimore

So right! The latest boondoggle is Buffalo Bill’s stadium in NY! Shame on NY governor!

Pittsburgh Steelers did exactly this. I owned a home within city limits and paid the price. The cost of a new stadium to be paid for with tax payer money was put to a vote and was defeated, so property owners were told the team was going to plan B. Within a year my property taxes doubled

The amount of money spent on professional team sports in the US boggles my mind.

Not to mention that the 'temporary' taxes levied to build the stadiums somehow never go away. Also, the owners are rewarded for not properly caring for the expensive structures with a new one.

I’m glad San Diego voters told the Chargers to take a hike when they asked for a new downtown stadiums!

The only case that I know of where public money wasn't used was the Palace of Auburn Hills. Then owner Bill Davidson used his money to build it. Little Caears Arena, where the Detroit Pistons and Red Wings play, owned by two different billionaires, fleeced the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan despite Detroit going through a bankruptcy. Disgusting behavior.

This is what class warfare looks like.

I've always questioned fan loyalty to a team when the team doesn't reciprocate.

The Sacramento Kings stadium is another good example. The new stadium was moved to downtown Sacramento and has less parking and it is smaller than the old stadium. What a scam!

Thank you. When I was a kid in the 1960s I got the impression that sports fans and owners actually ridiculed an occasional family for taking their kids to a “snob” opera or ballet. In todays world the more expensive performing arts in sport or theater is sports. Try getting a season ticket to a hot and performing football team and sit in a “great seat” for a season. I can’t imagine that cost??? 10k USD per seat?!

What about college sports? All the money spent on them could be used to improve colleges in many ways.

I have absolutely zero interest in watching a bunch of millionaires playing a kids game. I haven't been to a game or even watched one on TV for decades.

“Drop it from a helicopter!” That’s a kneeslapper! A genius plus the comedic timing is awesome

Double R. At it once again. I'd rather spend 3-4 hours watching your videos than any college or NFL football game.

The Chicago Bears are trying to pull this in their proposed move to the suburb of Arlington Heights. Even if they don't get public funding for a new stadium, they'll get a boatload of tax breaks. They're claiming some ridiculous figures of public benefit; I believe they said the new stadium would create 42,000 new jobs. Sure, Jan! This after soaking the taxpayers for $430 million remodeling (and destroying the architectural aesthetic of) Soldier Field in 2001. Somebody ought to play this video at the next Arlington Heights city council meeting.