151–160 of 290 posts
What I find fascinating that the most anti-government people (usually right wing) are usually for these deals and the more pro-government people (usually left wing) are against these deals. At least this is my observation. Scott Walker for example signed a stadium deal in Wisconsin and campaigns on small government.
Douchebags. Got it. HAHA - yet again, criticizing GS on HN results in downvotes. So now we have to worry about GS VC shills on HN as opposed to just eglin shills on reddit?
Hard call to make. It is reasonable to ban teams whose owners are technically incapable of ever changing their (legal) mind about any future question.
I think it's more that the owners realize without this rule cities will demand some kind of civic ownership of teams before they'll be willing to shell out tax money for stadiums and such.
The NFL is a unionized, state-supported, maximally regulated market with rigid spending requirements, price fixing, supply shortages... ... held up as the conservative free market jingoistic ideal.
Unions only come into existence because of capitalism. In a cooperative, the employees are the owners, so there's no such thing as a union. The NFL is certainly not maximally-regulated, in that more regulations are possible. But the key here is that corrupt corporate wealthy powerful people are always happy to claim that whatever they are doing to stay wealthy and powerful is actually based on some ideal whether that…
What about unions of public workers? Even in the USSR there were unions. Worker cooperatives are not the only alternative to capitalism.
It's not an unreasonable position for a municipality to chose lose money on a stadium. They typically lose money on symphony orchestras, ballets and performing arts centers. That one is considered low culture and the other considered high culture is not relevant is we assume that the people are being ably represented. But what seems to infuriate people is that orchestras and ballets are typically not owned by billion…
Don't forget the "stupid jocks picked on me in school so fuck them" factor.
There's also the fact that the cities are basically footing the bill for some rich people to make more money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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I always wonder why people from Europe always use "As a European" to preface smug comments, there's got to be a sociology study there. I mean, it's pretty necessary for the context of what the OP is saying. Americans say "As an American" less often because they just assume everyone is an American in the first place. I'm not sure that's better and, come on, it's not like Americans aren't capable of smugness now, is it…
Here, square stadiums are used by rugby (union and league) in the winter and soccer in the summer. Oval stadiums are used by AFL in the winter and cricket in the summer. In between, they occasionally host concerts - for example, when there's away games, or mid-week, or between seasons.
This seems like a way better approach than the NFL one. Is it just because NFL / baseball / basketball (the 'big 3' in the US as far as I can tell) are all so radically different in field/court size and design that they can't be housed together? Is there any overlap that can occur in stadium mixed-use?
Here, square stadiums are used by rugby (union and league) in the winter and soccer in the summer. Oval stadiums are used by AFL in the winter and cricket in the summer. In between, they occasionally host concerts - for example, when there's away games, or mid-week, or between seasons.
This seems like a way better approach than the NFL one. Is it just because NFL / baseball / basketball (the 'big 3' in the US as far as I can tell) are all so radically different in field/court size and design that they can't be housed together? Is there any overlap that can occur in stadium mixed-use?
It's not an unreasonable position for a municipality to chose lose money on a stadium. They typically lose money on symphony orchestras, ballets and performing arts centers. That one is considered low culture and the other considered high culture is not relevant is we assume that the people are being ably represented. But what seems to infuriate people is that orchestras and ballets are typically not owned by billion…
Naturally; orchestras and ballets would struggle to exist without taxpayer money. Sports teams do not have this issue, which is why people complain; essentially every dollar spent by the taxpayers on a stadium is another dollar in the pocket of the team owner. I don't know about football, but no owner in the history of baseball has lost money on their team; even those operating at a negative cash-flow have seen net increases due to the increasing value of their team.
They levy a tax of several bucks on every car rental called the "stadium tax", ostensibly to help fund the stadium, although critics say it punishes tourists and locals who need a rental car, and anyway the money is apparently routed to other uses.
I see nothing wrong with building a world class sports facility. Build it, and they will come. It brings in millions of dollars in tourism and related business. The problem is when cities that build these things don't know how to budget properly, don't monetize the stadium properly, and piss away a lot of the money in corruption, fraud, nepotism, are taken advantage of by unscrupulous contractors and unions, and so forth.
Probably a public-private consortium would do a better job in the long run. Public to get the initial rights-of-way and easements, private to run the thing efficiently and profitably and defend against the con artists who plague all such major projects.
It's not an unreasonable position for a municipality to chose lose money on a stadium. They typically lose money on symphony orchestras, ballets and performing arts centers. That one is considered low culture and the other considered high culture is not relevant is we assume that the people are being ably represented. But what seems to infuriate people is that orchestras and ballets are typically not owned by billion…
With orchestras and ballets and performing arts centers everybody knows up front you have an ongoing financial liability. And the numbers are smaller.