Citizens Still Paying for Stadiums that have been Demolished ($80 mill still owed on the Kingdome)

[The Straight Story]

Citizens Still Paying for Stadiums that have been Demolished

The days of publicly-financed sports stadiums are largely over for most American communities, and it’s just as well. For today, decades after many such venues were built to accommodate professional football and/or baseball teams, local residents are still paying off the construction debts—of stadiums no longer standing.

Example No. 1: Giants Stadium. The so-called New York football franchise relocated to New Jersey in the 1976, thanks to a new stadium financed through local bonds. That facility grew old by the 21st century, and was replaced this year with a new stadium right next door. The Giants played their last game at Giants Stadium on January 3, 2010, and it was completely demolished by August 10. But New Jerseyans are still on the hook for $110 million in debt related to the stadium and $266 million overall for the Meadowlands Sports Complex it was a part of.

Similar situations face communities in Seattle, where $80 million is still owed on the Kingdome, which was demolished ten years ago, as well as in Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Houston, Kansas City, Memphis and Pittsburgh.

http://www.allgov.com/Where_is_the_Money_Going/ViewNews/Citizens_Still_Paying_for_Stadiums_that_have_been_Demolished_100921

[nc4bo]

1. SMDH - Man!

:wtf: can I say more than that?!

[MichiganVote]

2. Another "free market" scam throughout America.

[zbdent]

3. Wealthfare ...

and isn't it amazing that an overwhelming majority of sports team owners vote/support Republicans? I thought they wanted the wasteful government spending to stop ...

[Octafish]

4. That's how Smirko got rich.

Funny how that works.

[iamtechus]

5. Dumbshits

Throughout my voting life I've seen dumbshit taxpayers vote to fund these things that most of them never use and many couldn't even afford the tickets to get into.

[Citizen Worker]

6. The Kingdome and $80 million still owed. When the state legislature jammed the new stadium

down the voter's throats after the voters narrowly rejected the bond issue there was $150 million owed on a recently remodeled and perfectly good facility. But just as egregious and seldom reported on was the way in which the new football stadium was rammed through. St. Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, agreed to purchase the Seattle Seahawks only if a new football only facility was built. The legislature, still reeling from the voters anger over the baseball stadium, said there was no way they would get involved directly with the football stadium. So, they passed a special piece of legislation granting Allen the authority to hold a vote IF he payed for it. The legislation also restricted the special vote solely to the issue of the football stadium. As Greg Palast would later write "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," although Palast's book was NOT about the Seahawks football stadium but it is an apt analogy.

The "free market" is a wondrous thing, isn't it?

[Generic Other]

9. and the state has a 500 million dollar budget shortfall this year

A lot of services will be cut and needs will go unmet. This waste of money drives me nuts. I live half hour from the ballpark as I have most of my life. I never went inside the King Dome or the new ballpark. None of these subsidized rich men's toys benefited me.

[Archae]

7. These scams continue because...

No politician wants to be "The guy who lost the (fill in the blank team)."

[AnArmyVeteran]

8. Corrupt team owners use stadiums to steal at will.

They use taxpayer money to build stadiums and rip off all the profits leaving the taxpayers with the bills. This is free enterprise at its best when the taxpayers take all the loses and corrupt rich people steal all the profits.