Chiefs expected to move from Arrowhead to Kansas state

[Mike MacDarnold]

Just remove the federal tax exemption for stadium bonds, that would be a heavy disincentive for public financing. Whoever fulfills that promise gets my vote.

 

[IndyHawk]

The argument is that if the team leaves, there won't be any tax to collect anyway.

I'm against public funding for private professional sports teams, but I would rather see a federal law that prohibits for-profit professional sporting organizations from receiving public funds so that teams don't play one jurisdiction against another.

But on the other hand, there are places, like the LA area where SoFi was built entirely with private financing, that have a lot more private funding available than in some place like Kansas City or Minneapolis.

It's a pretty tough issue with no good solution.

The owners and the NFL have plenty of money to finance and build their
own stadiums.

 

[RiverDog]

The owners and the NFL have plenty of money to finance and build their
own stadiums.

Not all owners are created equal. Nor are all markets. The Packers, for example, are owned by the fans, a set up that I wish were SOP for the league.

The problem is that if we ban public funds from being spent, you put at a disadvantage the small markets who do not have the private investment base that the big cities have.

My ideal solution would be for the league to set up a stadium fund. Take a fix percentage of TV revenue along with a fix percentage of player salaries and put it in an investment fund that can be used to build one new stadium a year. But of course, that would require the owners to give up their free public funds.

At this point, we just have to accept the current situation for what it is. If you don't like public money being spent, then don't vote for the bond issue or elect representatives that will use your tax money for such ventures.

 

[Mike MacDarnold]

At this point, we just have to accept the current situation for what it is. If you don't like public money being spent, then don't vote for the bond issue or elect representatives that will use your tax money for such ventures.

I followed the Raiders relocation pretty closely and this is a no-go.

First, the pols already in office never got elected on the platform of stadium financing. The citizenry were moderately opposed to public funds for the stadium but the hotel/casino lobby was pretty in favor of it.

The pols were adamant to not let it go to a public vote and established the stadium authority to run the studies and negotiate the deal. Of course the studies painted a rosy picture of never having any recessions in 40 years, plenty of full-time jobs, people staying in hotels for 3-4 nights to pay the hotel tax, etc.

Stadium vote passes. Some pols retired, some lost their jobs, some kept theirs. Of course, only 1/4 of the promised jobs came into fruition. No comment from them when challenged by independent media. Covid hit and their rainy day fund had to be partially used within a couple years of completion. I’m not sure if that fund ever got replenished fully, the board meetings’ graphs are a little confusing.

Truly, these pols need to be held personally financially accountable for their votes in any form of government. If their projections fail, there needs to be a clawback for their incompetence even if it’s only symbolic and won’t make a huge dent in the shortcomings. Suppose we can confiscate 3/4 of their personal wealth for starters. It would be a nice disincentive for their crookedness or incompetence.

 

[RiverDog]

I followed the Raiders relocation pretty closely and this is a no-go.

First, the pols already in office never got elected on the platform of stadium financing. The citizenry were moderately opposed to public funds for the stadium but the hotel/casino lobby was pretty in favor of it.

The pols were adamant to not let it go to a public vote and established the stadium authority to run the studies and negotiate the deal. Of course the studies painted a rosy picture of never having any recessions in 40 years, plenty of full-time jobs, people staying in hotels for 3-4 nights to pay the hotel tax, etc.

Stadium vote passes. Some pols retired, some lost their jobs, some kept theirs. Of course, only 1/4 of the promised jobs came into fruition. No comment from them when challenged by independent media. Covid hit and their rainy day fund had to be partially used within a couple years of completion. I’m not sure if that fund ever got replenished fully, the board meetings’ graphs are a little confusing.

Truly, these pols need to be held personally financially accountable for their votes in any form of government. If their projections fail, there needs to be a clawback for their incompetence even if it’s only symbolic and won’t make a huge dent in the shortcomings. Suppose we can confiscate 3/4 of their personal wealth for starters. It would be a nice disincentive for their crookedness or incompetence.

That would be nice, but if you put in that many disincentives, you're not going to have a very large pool of candidates. If you want good candidates, you have to cast a wide net.