Spending Public Money On Sports Stadiums Is Bad Business – NPR

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The public share to pay for construction of a new Minnesota Vikings football stadium is reportedly $498 million.

Jim Mone/AP

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Jim Mone/AP

The public share to pay for construction of a new Minnesota Vikings football stadium is reportedly $498 million.

Jim Mone/AP

As an absolutely impossible thing happened to Serena Williams on the way to becoming the absolutely guaranteed Grand Slam champion, it reminds us once again, on the field of play, there is no sure thing. But off the field, some things are, to coin a word: un-upsettable.

At the top of the un-upsettable list is that in American city after American city either the voters or their elected tribunes will put up oodles of the citizens’ hard-deducted tax money in order to fund a new stadium for the benefit of a filthy-rich team owner.

Never mind that this has long been recognized by all sorts of economists as bad business for the cities. Municipalities all over the country keep forking over for these athletic Taj Mahals.

Click the audio to hear the rest of Deford’s 2 cents on this fiscal topic.