Chargers' move shows California is done spending public money on the NFL

[Zorro]

The Chargers’ dramatic split from the city of San Diego may be a sign that California is officially done spending public money on sports franchises.

California voters have grown more skeptical of pouring billions of dollars into football stadiums, which have been shown to generate less of an economic boom than the National Football League has advertised. That’s upending the traditional relationship between billionaire franchise owners and their hometowns.

“Gone are the days where there is broad public support for taxpayer-funded stadiums. It’s very difficult to find a rate of return in that investment,” said Kristin Gaspar, who was elected as a county supervisor in San Diego in November.

After haggling with the city of San Diego for years to secure tax money to build a new stadium, and getting snubbed by voters, the Chargers announced Thursday that the team would move to Los Angeles. The team will share a privately funded new stadium in Inglewood with the Rams when it opens in 2019.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-chargers-taxes-nfl-20170113-story.html

[KamaAina]

1. But are we done in the NFL?

The Raiders are still pursuing this godforsaken Vegas thing. The three remaining teams would have a combined record of 11-37.

[TeamPooka]

2. I hope the headline is right. Although if my city Los Angeles keeps bringing new NFL teams to town

eventually they're going to get a good one.
Not yet though.

Former NY'er
Go Giants!

[Warpy]

3. I think there are other places that haven't gotten the memo

that the team owners are so fucking rich they should build their own damned sports palaces.

[LuckyLib]

4. Amen to that! Minneapolis taxpayers had to pony up $$ without a vote!

A referendum was required, but the mayor bypassed that. Subsidizing wealthy owners - it's the American way!

[Warpy]

5. Here in poverty stricken NM, a mayor named Baca wanted to build a new stadium

to house a minor league baseball team. People here rebelled, especially since hizzoner had poormouthed city employees for his entire term to that point. What the SOB ended up doing is refurbishing the old stadium, a much cheaper option.

When the town got together to name the new team the Isotopes after a Simpsons episode instead of something macho like the Conquistadors (which would rightly have pissed off all the tribes), he gave the appearance of being a broken man.

Now if we can only do something about the idiotically high amount squandered on the local loser college football team. The budget for football is bigger than that for the university's hospital. The highest paid worker in this state is the football coach. Clearly, all this is insane. This is a poor state and needs to act like it more often.