Vox

Musings, rants, rambling, general nonsense

Pro Sports & The State

Posted on | March 22, 2011 | No Comments

…there’s a pro sports bubble, baby, enabled by free and reduced-price money being pumped into the system by every idiot city and state willing to do whatever it takes to keep a franchise around.
~ Why The NFL Labor Dispute is Like Battleground Wisconsin (& Statehouse Stand-Offs Across the Country) ~

As Nick says, the only reason there is so much money to fight over is that pro sports have cajoled & extorted municipalities into forking over tax dollars.

Here in Arizona, the Goldwater Institute is ‘standing athwart’ a plan that would have the city of Glendale throwing massive piles of cash at a money pit of a losing team, in the hopes of keeping said money pit in town – where it can suck up even more of the people’s tax dollars. Coyote Blog does a great job at breaking down the whole crazy deal.

I personally would love to see amateur football players take the field for whatever they are willing to take, pay-wise. I would especially love it if it meant reduced ticket prices and a chance to see men who just want to play the game they love. Those poor millionaire pro players are employees who have no “right” to their employers profits – no matter how obscene those profits may or may not be. If Adrian Peterson feels that a $10.2 million dollar salary = slavery, let him go get a job elsewhere.

I also don’t care whether the Coyotes stay or go, as long as they don’t get MORE of our money to do it. If there were a market here for a professional hockey team, you wouldn’t have to try so hard to find a buyer – or bribe any buyer you find to keep them here. They don’t sell tickets because we just don’t care. Even when they were winning, the seats were empty. Hockey in Phoenix was ill-advised, continuing to shovel money at the problem, money that could be better used elsewhere, is insane.

“By minimizing the state, we maximize peace, or at least we allow people to pick and choose their battles.“



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Category: AZ, peeves, politics, Sports

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