Jeremy W. scribes, in part:
One question that I have for both the pro- and anti-stadium crowd is why we
can't hang the public obligation for a new stadium on ticket prices? The
Twins average about 1.9 million fans a year. Maybe 2 million with a new
ball park. (Everyone involved with building the dome need not apply.) 2
million folks, over ten years taxed an average of $10 per head rounds out to
$200 million. Set a progressive ticket tax rate, a $9 ticket becomes a $12
ticket and a $44 ticket goes to $75, something like that. I recognize that
a bond would have to be floated and the ticket taxes used to repay the debt.
I also have not figured in the financing. Nevertheless, what are the
challenges to having the 2 million people who would most appreciate a new
stadium pay for it?
<<<
Jeremy's suggestion of a progressive ticket tax to pay for the Twins (or
any?) new pro-sports stadium to me.
It is also the most "Free Market" suggestion going. Let the Twins figure
our what people are willing to pay for various seats and amenities, and work
within that budget to get commercial financing.
The corporate socialism of America is so glaringly obvious when it comes to
professional sports. Free marketeers begin whining at the thought that
sports might have to operate like a real business or change the plan
altogether to fit a new "market."
The second, more profound issue is that we continue to waste time and money
and energy focused on building anti-sustainable structures that will be
obsolete very soon due to high energy costs of operation. Natural gas price
has quintupled in the last three years or so and is likely to climb higher.
Meanwhile, people are likely to have less discretionary money to spend in
the coming years, not more. We will spend more on necessities and less on
the distractions that have become so prominent in our short-lived Energy
Binge economy. Professional sports as we know them have become a
steroid-saturated monstrosity, and will not be sustainable in any way.
So why talk of investing public dollars in pro-sports at all? Let us
"starve the corporate welfare beast, or at least shrink it down to such a
size that we can drown it in the bathtub."
Better to pursue real economic development by investing in sustainable urban
infrastructure without all the vestigial anti-sustainable structures choking
the landscape and starving our budgets.
-- pedaling for peace and ecojustice -- Gary Hoover
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