9 Billion Tax Dollars

[SHRED]

To build NFL stadiums for the 1% and not one cent of taxes paid by the NFL since 1966.

Do I have this right?

[Archaic]

1. Sort of.

First off, it's still disgusting.

But to be accurate:

Billions of taxes used to build buildings owned by billionaires, used by millionaires. And in the best of all worlds, an NFL team gets 2 preseason, 8 regular season, and maybe 3 post-season games. Very few concerts pull an audience bigger than a standard NHL rink, so you MIGHT see 5 concerts a year on that field. Add 10 random events. You get less than 30 days a year in a building that was a gift from the tax payers.

But while the NFL as a league doesn't pay taxes. The teams and owners still do. They of course have ways around most of it.

So the league is a little different than the individuals getting the free buildings. But it's still horrendous.

I just can't understand how these buildings get built. Why a city gives up their tax rights for X years, and then pours piles of money on top of it to build it for some billionaire. Everybody knows when it gets closer to the end of their free taxes, that building will suddenly not be competitive and a new location will have to be scouted. They might start extorting the city and saying they'll have to move to Los Angeles or Portland, or San Antonio... Or, they could be the team that goes to London, England!

It's awful.

The league ought to be building the stadiums. AND the owners should be paying the taxes.

[BlueStreak]

3. Exactly. These are mostly the 0.01-percenters

and the tax code is written just for them.

But their tax advantages don't have much to do with the NFL specifically.

[HereSince1628]

2. It's "panem et circenses" on the taxpayers dime.

The GOP/tea-party complain about the bread, we complain about the arenas and stadiums for the circus.

In the end, so long as the people are diverted from the real mismangement and theft, the 1% enjoy all the benefits of their favored status.