Taxpayers Bailing Out Wealthy NFL Team Owners
Should wealthy millionares and billionaires put the burden on taxpayers for providing the funds to build stadiums? That is the question that has been on the minds of many for over the past couple decades.
In the last two decades, the analysis found, taxpayers across the country have spent nearly $7 billion on stadiums for a league that surpassed $10 billion in revenue last season. This means in the last two decades every person in the US have paid about $22 to build NFL football stadiums.
Cities are not just struggling to pay for the buildings, they are also struggling to sustain them. Cincinnati is a perfect example of a city that had been struggling due to a $424 million stadium being built in 2010. In order to stay afloat the city of Cincinnati had to sell a public hospital just to keep the budget level. To put this number into some perspective each person in the city of Cincinnati contributed about $1,000 to the new stadium.
Many people who advocate for the building of a new NFL stadium are convinced that they are doing the city a favor by building the stadium. They say that the stadium will bring more revenue to the city and bring more commerce. A student at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Roger Noll, says, "By comparison, other billion dollar facilities – like a major shopping center or large manufacturing plant – will employ many more people and generate substantially more revenue and taxes."
It is not possible for a league like the National Football League (NFL), who only has 8 guaranteed home games in a season, to generate revenue for the city. Unlike the NFL, Major League Baseball (MLB) has 162 guaranteed home games in a season. If a city were to spend millions of taxpaying dollars towards a stadium, it would only be logical to do that for an MLB team before a NFL team.
Effects on Taxpayers
For some time now, taxpayers have been bailing out wealthy business owners from having to pay for their stadium. As we are all aware, the NFL is a business and any time the owner gets a chance to skip out on paying for a stadium and make more of a profit they will take advantage of it. When building a new stadium the taxpayers take on all the risk, while the owners of teams continue to make more money year after year.
As the chart shows, NFL teams have only increased their revenue stream from 2001 to 2014. The structure of revenue in the NFL is very different from most leagues because they have national revenue sharing. All 32 NFL teams share revenue from broadcast right, ticket sales, and merchandise. The only exception to this is the Dallas Cowboys keep their own revenue generated from merchandise sales.
The idea of revenue sharing sounds like a good idea right? Well, it’s not that simple. For the powerhouse teams like the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, and the Dallas Cowboys this idea of revenue sharing could potential hurt their revenue. For instance, take a team like the Cleveland Browns. They do not sell as many tickets and merchandise as the New England Patriots, but still benefit from the revenue sharing.
In a poll done by the Economist in 2014, only four percent of the respondents said that they approve strongly of such use of public money. 45% said they strongly disagree and 29% said they disagree somewhat of such use of public money. This poll shows that people are not in agreement with the idea of sports teams using taxpayer’s money to build stadiums. "In the past 15 years alone, over $12 billion of the public’s money has gone to privately owned stadiums—constituting essentially a massive transfer of wealth from everyday Americans to the super-rich owners and players involved in these billion-dollar sports franchises."
Examples of taxpayers paying for stadiums in recent years:
Dallas Cowboys stadium- taxpayers paid $325 million of its $1.2 billion dollar price tag
Minnesota Vikings- taxpayers will pay $498 million of the total $1.06 billion bill
Atlanta Falcons- taxpayers will pay $600 million of the total $1.5 billion
Buffalo Bills- taxpayers paid $130 million last year for renovations and they are considering building a new, $1 billion NFL stadium
If these new stadiums were being built like the Philadelphia Eagles Stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, the poll might be very different. At Lincoln Financial Field they have installed 11,108 solar panels, 14 wind turbines, and have made advancements in recycling. 30% of the stadiums total energy comes from the 11,108 solar panels and 14 wind turbines. The other 70% comes from offsite locations that use renewable energy. From 2010 to 2012 they have produced a 209% increase in recycled material. All of these initiatives and more are all part of their Go Green program. If the building of new stadiums were more about sustainability and less about who has the biggest jumbotron or who has the best suites, more people might be willing to contribute their taxpayer’s dollars.
