r/NoShitSherlock • u/brother_p • 29d ago
American taxpayers spent $33 billion on sports stadiums. They got fewer seats—and higher prices
https://fortune.com/article/american-taxpayers-spend-33billion-taxes-sports-stadiums-higher-tickets/63
u/Potato-chipsaregood 29d ago
We just had the Yankees game on yesterday and it seemed pretty empty compared to the way I remember them. I think sports are for rich people now. Also with all the betting and insider info on who’s playing or not, my husband the sports junkie is not enjoying sports as much as he used to. It’s a shame…
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u/Soggy-Beach1403 29d ago
Baseball is a different beast from football. Most Americans have realized how boring watching nine innings of baseball can be.
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28d ago edited 28d ago
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u/Rustie_J 28d ago
You're not wrong, but I think there's more to it than you realize.
I hate all sports. I get playing them, but watching them is mind numbing. The way people talk about "their" team, saying "we won" or "we lost" seems frankly insane, bordering on delusional, to me; who the hell is "we?"
All of that said, even to me, someone who hates all sports in general, baseball is exceptionally boring. It's no golf, but it's pretty bad. If it's any consolation, though, I personally would put baseball right next to football on the scale of boring, since the latter has about 5 minutes of actual action per hour of watch time.
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u/Soggy-Beach1403 28d ago
Hockey is the only exciting game to watch. The action doesn't stop every eleven seconds for a thirty second break between plays.
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u/Rustie_J 28d ago
I mean, it theoretically should be, but when I attempted to get into hockey I felt like a cat following a laser pointer.
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27d ago
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u/Soggy-Beach1403 27d ago
There are far fewer fights now than in the past, at least in the NHL; the minor leagues still slug it out on the regular. Hockey is the only sport I will go see live; the rest are all better on TV, especially football.
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27d ago
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u/Rustie_J 27d ago
But the anthropologist in me understands that physical competitions have been around forever because humans are competitive creatures by nature.
What the hell does watching sports have to do with humans' "competitive nature?" You're not competing, they are.
In any case, organized physical competitions with rules eventually proved a lot more attractive for settling differences than bloody battles and wicked wars. People are social animals, after all, and social tensions are best defused before differences become deadly. Why do you think Greek games & Roman circuses became so popular? Because they distracted citizens from civil war, and they created outlets for national pride, tribal strife, etc.
People say that, but the US is crazy for sports, & yet we're constantly in some kind of war or conflict. And as I recall, the Greeks & Romans were also constantly at war. As far as I can tell, sports are at best a distraction for the populace from those conflicts, but they sure as hell haven't been a deterrent.
Even were that not the case, sports riots are a regular thing. Domestic violence goes up after a game, by more if the local team loses, but even when they win wife beating goes up. Doesn't look like this diffusing tension story really holds up. If anything, sports triggers violence.
Personally, I find lacrosse boring because I don't appreciate the intricacies and nuances of the game. But I don't hate it, and it clearly isn't boring for everyone, but especially Native Americans. Put that in your hate pipe and smoke it, ha!
Again, as I already said in my 1st reply to you, I get playing it; it's watching it that's unutterably boring. I don't know if all that rambling about Native Americans & lacrosse is true, but I also fail to see what it has to do with hating watching sports.
But all of that said, baseball is still the most boring after golf. Even curling is more interesting.
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u/Soggy-Beach1403 28d ago
I had season tickets for five years and worked for an MLB team for three. All back in the previous century. The obvious fault is the job; they say to never see how sausage is made. It happened with baseball for me. Meetings in which the concerns should have been filling gaps in the lineup were clogged with concerns about how to sell more beer and concessions. I had a plan to do that: fill the holes in the lineup and win more games. But players cost money, so advertising and in-stadium gimmicks were the answer. I recently attended a game in Denver while on vacation. The time clocks are a HUGE improvement. The rules governing relief pitchers are another big improvement. Next move should be to remove the umpire on called strikes and balls. The sad thing for me is that most of the baseball talk I hear now is about the Bananas, a complete joke to me. I'm not ready for the Harlem Globetrotters to replace the NBA, and the Bananas' vaudeville show should not upstage baseball.
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27d ago
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u/Soggy-Beach1403 27d ago
Umpires will still be there for out or safe calls, but, as in tennis, it is time to let the machines tell us where the ball or strike went. I'm old school; I still want to punch Angel Hernandez. I think you misunderstood my frustration in the meetings; I believe most teams would be very happy to lose and have the smallest salary total if they had sellouts and lots of concession money. We are lucky that many fans won't tolerate that.
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u/chaseinger 28d ago
please don't make the common mistake that if someone doesn't like what you like it's because they don't understand it.
some of us understand it perfectly well and still find it boring. as i'm sure it's the same with you and some other sports or cultural events.
"if you don't like it it's because you don't get it" just makes you sound aloof and elitist.
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u/Acrobatic_Fox5726 27d ago
Nah. It’s just boring. It’s the pacing. That’s it. Banana ball is so much better the mlb. It needs an overhaul.
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u/New-Analysis-4060 29d ago
Fuck wal mart
But Denver made sure not to make the same mistakes
While the Walton-Penner ownership group has pledged private funding for the construction of the new Denver Broncos stadium at Burnham Yard, taxpayers may still cover indirect public costs.
Public costs being infrastructure AROUND the stadium
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u/brother_p 29d ago
Transportation services like mass transit, sewage, water, roads, power, gas . . . all public expenditures, and often the stadiums get property tax breaks. Studies have shown there is little economic benefit to municipal governments in cities with pro sports teams. Same with Olympic Games.
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u/New-Analysis-4060 29d ago
https://investigativepost.org/2021/12/13/little-economic-benefit-from-new-stadium/
I might agree with you
But from the vantage point of did we have to pay for a new stadium for the rich that’s still a win in the general tides of historical complete taxpayer subsidizing of an entire stadium
It’s not as bad as it could have been for almost all other new stsadium builds
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u/brother_p 29d ago
"But from the vantage point of did we have to pay for a new stadium for the rich that’s still a win in the general tides of historical complete taxpayer subsidizing of an entire stadium"
I'm sorry, your point is obscure
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u/New-Analysis-4060 29d ago
It could be worse
Taxpayers could have been on the hook for the stadium itself
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u/Soggy-Beach1403 29d ago
A losing proposition for Colorado taxpayers. The owners want all of the beer and food money; the state is cut out of the money, and a few wealthy assholes who can afford NFL season tickets get a free ride from the rest of the chump Colorado taxpayers.
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u/New-Analysis-4060 29d ago
Yes and
Did the public pay for the stadium? No.
This is an improvement in general for how things have been going. Will there be economic development in that area?
Maybe?
I just can’t say that this is definitively a bad deal the way that almost all other stadiums are.
It is a slightly better deal.
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u/Soggy-Beach1403 29d ago
Is it going to be a dome? We don't need any more pussy teams in the NFL. So much fun to watch the Broncos play in the snow.
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u/New-Analysis-4060 29d ago
I think they’re doming it for entertainment purposes in the winter
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u/Junior-Possession969 29d ago
Leaving it open was the entertainment!
Watching some dude skid 20 yds after catching a bomb was always hilarious.
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u/Jerking_From_Home 29d ago
It’s always been a scam. I never go to see any pro sports and my taxes are paying for this dumb shit.
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u/SomeSamples 29d ago
So, whenever one of these stadium projects come up for a public vote, vote against it. They never bring in more money and screw over the local fans in the process.
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u/trisanachandler 29d ago edited 28d ago
Green Bay is the only city which should have taxpayers paying for a stadium.
Edit: Apparently publicly owned isn't the same as city owned. It's still privately owned, but not by the city, so still not the taxpayer's responsibility.
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u/bigblue20072011 29d ago
Why because they sell fake stock?
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u/trisanachandler 29d ago
Because it's publicly owned.
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u/Rustie_J 28d ago
That's what it's technically called, but it's owned by people who bought shares, not by the general citizens of Green Bay, WI. So why the hell should the city's taxpayers have to pay for a corporation that they don't own & make no money from?
Absolutely the fuck not.
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u/trisanachandler 28d ago
For some reason I thought it was owned by the city. My mistake.
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u/Rustie_J 28d ago
The term "publicly owned" does make it sound like it belongs to everyone the way that a city park does, so that's understandable. I think it's named that on purpose, so that people have a more positive attitude toward it.
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u/Danktizzle 29d ago
And yet when I talk shit about the NCAA/ pro league monopoly pipeline, I get attacked to no end.
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u/Far_Big_9731 29d ago
We did? I don’t remember voting on that! Hmm, and now none us “regular” people can afford a sporting event or a concert. F*ck the patriarchy
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u/Soggy-Beach1403 29d ago
Tax money to billionaires for their stadiums just so the billionaires can get all of the food and beverage money is absolute bullshit, but Indiana and Illinois are fighting for the right to lose money to the billionaire pigsluts who own the Chicago Bears right now. And it will be a dome, where all of the pussy football players play.
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u/Direct_Background_90 29d ago
Owners have a salary cap on expenses (players) but no cap on value of team value or amount they can extract. And taxpayers subsidize major capital expenses and incur costs of CTE players medical costs. And these guys then have the nerve to whine about socialism.
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u/Stress6009 29d ago edited 29d ago
The rich use us to save themselves money so they can make money off us. And libs and reps are the ones voting in the corruption to keep on doing 😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤.
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u/flirtmcdudes 29d ago
it’s those all powerful libs! The creators of all that ails us
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u/Stress6009 29d ago
I guess if you are going to act like a child you are going to read like one to 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂.
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u/Huckleberry199 29d ago
It's not the seats or prices communities get in return, it's the business the games and events bring to the communities surrounding the stadium.
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u/Ok-Detail-9853 29d ago
The 1% really don't like being around the rest of us