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Your Tax Dollars At Play: How Stadium Tax Scams Pick Fans' Pockets

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Tax dollars build sports stadiums far more often than they should, which is going to make this entire column possible.

Stadium finance is so awash in public money that it is difficult to imagine how stadiums and arenas are built without tax dollars. Occasionally, a city and its taxpayers get a freebie: Anschutz Entertainment Group and MGM Grand covered the cost of T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The New York Jets and Giants built their Met Life Stadium without tax dollars. Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke so desperately wanted to drag his team out of St. Louis that he's footing the bill for a stadium for both the Rams and the Chargers. The Golden State Warriors, meanwhile, are privately funding a new arena in San Francisco's Mission Bay.

But all of the examples above are exceptions in the modern stadium finance landscape. Since 1997, National Football League franchises have spent an average of more than $250 million in public money on 23 new and massively overhauled stadiums. As pointed out by Georgia State University's Center for Sport and Urban Policy, 54 ballparks, arenas, and stadiums in North America have received nearly $11 billion in public funding since 2006 alone. Taxpayers got to vote on funding for just 15 of those facilities, with just eight getting approval.

In all, roughly $9.3 billion has been spent without a taxpayer vote on the matter.

When I initially proposed an ongoing column dedicated to stadium finance, I was asked if I thought there would be enough to write about. Honestly, if no other stadium projects were announced from this point onward, this column would have enough to get it through the year. Here are just a few places struggling with stadium finance issues right now:

Portland, Ore.: A Portland group and its media cohorts are campaigning for a Major League Baseball team in a city that not only kicked out a AAA team for soccer, but whose nearby minor-league teams have lower attendance than junior-league hockey. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has mentioned Portland as a potential expansion site.

Tampa: Major League Baseball's Rays are trying to escape their fairly inaccessible home at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg and have grand designs for a new ballpark in Tampa's Ybor City. Even Tampa's mayor, however, notes that there will be significant tax dollars attached to any such project.

Calgary: The National Hockey League's Flames want a new arena, but Calgary's mayor rightly responds to requests for $1.2 billion in arena funding with questions about what's in it for citizens. The Flames and Calgary City Council have responded by attempting to talk around the mayor.

Los Angeles: Oh, the NFL stadium is privately funded, but the highly controversial proposal for a new Clippers arena in Inglewood? Not so much. The Clippers want a deal, but residents don't want the building at all. Besides, there's already an arena in Inglewood.

Seattle: The city has paid off baseball's Safeco Field and the long-imploded Kingdome, and is just two years from repaying the cost of building CenturyLink Field for the NFL's Seahawks. However, despite negotiating its way to a sweetheart deal to renovate Key Arena for an NBA or NHL team, the city is now dealing with a $180 million request from baseball's Mariners. Apparently, the ballpark needs fancier toasters and less-2000s furniture.

Las Vegas: T-Mobile Arena came for free, but Vegas threw $750 million in hotel tax money at the NFL's Oakland Raiders for a new stadium and basically anything else Raiders owner Mark Davis desires.

Oakland: Already losing the Warriors and Raiders, Oakland is now dealing with Portland press actively wooing baseball's A's despite the fact that the A's and Oakland have entered exclusive negotiations. While certain potential ballpark sites remain contentious, the A's will be getting a new home one way or the other.

Milwaukee: The NBA's Bucks are opening the season in a new arena that will cost taxpayers upwards of $400 million. From suites with butlers to financial services company Fiserv's name on the place (after taking $12.5 million in subsidies of its own from the state of Wisconsin), this arena is a testament to just how well you can live by raiding the public piggy bank.

Arizona: Everybody but the Cardinals wants a new building. The Diamondbacks, Coyotes and Suns are all seeking new homes – and trying to talk up the importance of sports to Arizona's economy. The Diamondbacks are out of their ballpark lease, Phoenix is being sued over the Suns' arena plans, and the Coyotes want to move out of Glendale, but can't get anyone to give them a building.

New York: The Giants, Jets, Yankees, Mets, Nets, Red Bulls and Devils have all moved into new homes within the last decade. But the New York Islanders didn't like Brooklyn and will be building an arena near Belmont Park that they claim will be privately funded, while asking the state for $6 million to renovate their old home at Nassau Coliseum. NYCFC, meanwhile, wants its own arena and has put forth a puzzling proposal to get it.

Cleveland: Still in debt from just about every sports facility it has ever built, Cleveland not only had to watch LeBron James leave again, but still has to pay for renovations to the Cleveland Cavaliers' arena.

Detroit: Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert wants to bring Major League Soccer to town and was willing to commit to a $300 million land swap to do it. Now he wants that team to play in the Detroit Lions' home at Ford Field under a retractable roof.  The cost? Likely around $100 million to $150 million.

Austin: Austin's city council just voted to steal the Columbus Crew from Ohio and let their ownership build a $200 million stadium on city-owned land. Though Crew ownership claims the new facility will be privately financed, they still face some legal hurdles back in Ohio.

This column is going to address all of the above and more, while issuing a few reminders about why sports facilities so rarely pay off for taxpayers or their cities. As long as team owners and leagues feel it necessary to help themselves to the most tax dollars they can get for minimal return, there will always be enough outrage to fill this space.

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