It’s long been a point of contention around the professional sports world. Should taxpayers be asked to foot the bill for new stadiums?
This debate was brought to the forefront once the Oakland Raiders received approval by the NFL to move to Las Vegas. The venue in that desert metropolis is expected to cost taxpayers $750 million.
It now looks like the United States Senate will take on this topic and could kill the idea of stadiums being funded by taxpayers moving forward.
“Professional sports teams generate billions of dollars in revenue,” Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said, via ESPN. “There’s no reason why we should give these multimillion-dollar businesses a federal tax break to build new stadiums.”
To be clear, this looks to be a non-partisan bill.
“Everyone likes free federal money to build their expensive stadiums, but with $20 trillion in federal debt, this is waste that needs to be eliminated,” James Lankford (R-OK) said in a statement.
We have no idea how far this legislation will go. In fact, there’s a chance it could die before being called to a vote. But it sure looks like the Senate itself is prepared to take on the National Football League and its 32 team owners. It could be a long-term battle between two powerful entities.
As ESPN notes, a report from the Brookings Institution claims that a total of $3.2 billion in taxpayer money has been used to erect or renovate 32 venues since 2000.
That sure is a whole lot of waste.