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I wish I was rich enough to own a professional sportsball team.
Because once you're that rich, you no longer have to pay for things.
Like the building called a "stadium" for your team to play in.
You make the taxpayers from the location of your stadium pay to build it.
If they don't you find a different group of politicians to cave into your demands and have THEIR taxpayers build it.
The taxpayer is rewarded with increased spending on law enforcement to combat the increased crime during games and events at the stadium.
They are rewarded with increased traffic congestion from games and events at the stadium.
The promises of increased business and economic benefits are illusory.
They have never once panned out.
And I say this as a hockey fan and a fan of the Tampa Lightning.
But if the Bolts demanded a new stadium on my back, I'd be helping them pack for their new home someplace else. If they wanted to move to my county, I'd be lighting a fire under my administrators to nuke the deal.
Coincidentally, Amalie Arena, home of The Bolts, isn't my taxpaying problem. It's Hillsborough County's. I don't live there.
I live close enough to get all the benefit I want and far enough away to escape the costs. I feel so damn clever at this bit of happenstance.
Oh, you pay even though you're not in Hillsborough. You pay every time you go to that county in increased sales tax, increased gas tax, increased prices from goods in Hillsborough, indirectly if your area receives any services from Hillsborough (like trash pickup/disposal, sewage and such) through your county.
ReplyDeleteYou just don't pay out the nose directly for sportsmoneyball arenafield.
The effect is much like a spread of birdshot. Heavy pattern in the center and thinning out the farther from the center.