Taking Money from Students for Sports Stars
April 23, 2010
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With tax day just past, it’s a good time to ask where our money should go – and where it shouldn’t. I don’t have all the answers, of course – but I’m convinced one expenditure should end immediately: stadium subsidies.
Two years ago, the New York Yankees signed third baseman Alex Rodriguez to a contract that will pay him $275 million dollars in exchange for ten years of catching, throwing and hitting a baseball. That puts him ahead of his teammate, Derek Jeter, who has to get by on a mere $189 million for his decade of duty. Sucker.
Whenever teams sign contracts like that, the player’s agent always justifies it by saying, “Well, that’s what the market will bear.”
If that were true, it would still be insane, but at least there would be a logic to it. After all, if any team is dumb enough to pay someone that kind of money, and if a family of four wants to pay $200 to see that guy play – well,then, so be it. That’s how free markets work.
But the free market doesn’t come close to paying these guys’ salaries. Who picks up the gap? You do – every time you pay your taxes. When teams spend money like that, they suddenly realize they need a fancy new stadium with luxury skyboxes to generate the kind of revenue necessary to pay hose ridiculous salaries. So, they demand state and local governments build them one – and most of the time, that’s exactly what those states and cities do.
The United States is home to 99 major league baseball, football, basketball and hockey arenas and stadiums. According to Judith Grant Long’s research at Rutgers University, the teams that play in those places have received subsidies totaling 21.3 billion dollars. That’s billion, with a ‘b.’
To pay for the Silverdome, the Palace and Comerica Park, Michigan taxpayers have coughed up $616 million dollars – which is about average.
Rodriguez’s team, the New York Yankees, just built a shiny new stadium for 2.3 billion dollars– and had the nerve to ask the tax payers to pony up half of that, over a billion dollars. But the Yankees get to keepall the team’s profits, which is how they pay guys like Rodriguez hundreds of millions of dollars to do something your kid does in the backyard for free.
What do the taxpayers get? The bill, that’s what. New York City’s school system is facing a $4 billion deficit, and a massive layoff of 15,000 teachers.
It doesn’t have to be this way. And, just across the border, it isn’t. Canada is home to eight major league teams. But Canadian taxpayers don’t pay for their stadiums. Their teams do – just like they should– and the taxpayers spend their money on their schools. It’s a novel concept.
Somehow, Canada ranks second worldwide in student literacy, and the U.S. ranks 15th. Fine. But we lead the world in sports salaries. U-S-A! U-S-A!
More good news: Rodriguez is doing just fine, thank you -- except for the steroid scandal, that is. He’s already hit two home runs this season, and since he gets paid about $800,000 per homer, he’s already made more than thirty New York City school teachers will this year – combined. Provided, of course, they don’t get laid off.
Taking candy from a baby maybe immoral – but taking money from students, and giving it to sports stars, should be illegal.
Press play to listen
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With tax day just past, it’s a good time to ask where our money should go – and where it shouldn’t. I don’t have all the answers, of course – but I’m convinced one expenditure should end immediately: stadium subsidies.
Two years ago, the New York Yankees signed third baseman Alex Rodriguez to a contract that will pay him $275 million dollars in exchange for ten years of catching, throwing and hitting a baseball. That puts him ahead of his teammate, Derek Jeter, who has to get by on a mere $189 million for his decade of duty. Sucker.
Whenever teams sign contracts like that, the player’s agent always justifies it by saying, “Well, that’s what the market will bear.”
If that were true, it would still be insane, but at least there would be a logic to it. After all, if any team is dumb enough to pay someone that kind of money, and if a family of four wants to pay $200 to see that guy play – well,then, so be it. That’s how free markets work.
But the free market doesn’t come close to paying these guys’ salaries. Who picks up the gap? You do – every time you pay your taxes. When teams spend money like that, they suddenly realize they need a fancy new stadium with luxury skyboxes to generate the kind of revenue necessary to pay hose ridiculous salaries. So, they demand state and local governments build them one – and most of the time, that’s exactly what those states and cities do.
The United States is home to 99 major league baseball, football, basketball and hockey arenas and stadiums. According to Judith Grant Long’s research at Rutgers University, the teams that play in those places have received subsidies totaling 21.3 billion dollars. That’s billion, with a ‘b.’
To pay for the Silverdome, the Palace and Comerica Park, Michigan taxpayers have coughed up $616 million dollars – which is about average.
Rodriguez’s team, the New York Yankees, just built a shiny new stadium for 2.3 billion dollars– and had the nerve to ask the tax payers to pony up half of that, over a billion dollars. But the Yankees get to keepall the team’s profits, which is how they pay guys like Rodriguez hundreds of millions of dollars to do something your kid does in the backyard for free.
What do the taxpayers get? The bill, that’s what. New York City’s school system is facing a $4 billion deficit, and a massive layoff of 15,000 teachers.
It doesn’t have to be this way. And, just across the border, it isn’t. Canada is home to eight major league teams. But Canadian taxpayers don’t pay for their stadiums. Their teams do – just like they should– and the taxpayers spend their money on their schools. It’s a novel concept.
Somehow, Canada ranks second worldwide in student literacy, and the U.S. ranks 15th. Fine. But we lead the world in sports salaries. U-S-A! U-S-A!
More good news: Rodriguez is doing just fine, thank you -- except for the steroid scandal, that is. He’s already hit two home runs this season, and since he gets paid about $800,000 per homer, he’s already made more than thirty New York City school teachers will this year – combined. Provided, of course, they don’t get laid off.
Taking candy from a baby maybe immoral – but taking money from students, and giving it to sports stars, should be illegal.
Copyright © 2010, Michigan Radio
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnubacon
Home run Bacs!
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and the strange thing is i don't recall voting for any of these subsidies...ah corporate welfare. meanwhile 6 teachers at my kids' school got their pink slips today.
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Thought provoking! John
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Amen! Excellent.....
In my frequent travels overseas it is often brought up and I am questioned as to why Amricans spend so much on sports. It seems to start with the investment in chidren all the way throught to professional sports. I assume college is still not professional? Where do we start in refornming our culture?
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John:
Those who are strong advocates of our "free market" system might condemn you, but I applaud you for pointing out a glaring deficiency in our culture today.
We are presently in the process of regulating Wall Street. Somehow, we must put the clamps on these major sports rip-offs. I am with you!
Go Academia! Go Blue! Dr. Ed Kornblue
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So,any thoughts on getting a ballot proposal in MI banning subsidies for stadiums? Sure,we might not be able to pay our pro athletes as much as other cities and hence might suffer in the won-lost dept. But, as much of a fan that i am, I'd be more proud of our state for being a leader!
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John I could not agree with you more. The players should pay for these stadiums if they want that kind of money and want us to come see them play (meaning pay those salaries). I find pro sports less interesting than college because of the "its all about the money" that is always there. Go Blue!!
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Well stated JUB.
As an educator is sickens me to see what's happening to public education in the state and you're right, much of what has been spent by taxpayers on stadiums and such could well be finding its way into a classroom. Lord knows that lottery money the state's always touting amounts to about a nickel on the dollar.
How about any franchise that takes public money to build its stadium must pay back $1 for every ticket sold to the state, county, and/or municipality that helped build its palace?
I know it's not much, but we're talking about $3-5 million a year multiplied by the 30-year life expectancy of the stadium ...
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Just think where Canada would be in literacy if it wasn't for the sham of an education all the kids in the junior hockey get.
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Well said John. The American government would be wise to take a lesson from our neighbors to the north in dealing with the relationship between successful sports franchises and public education.
In Ontario, one of the incentives to becoming a teacher is stake in one of the province’s most successful businesses: Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (i.e. the company that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and Toronto Raptors.)
The Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan is the majority owner of MLSE, so profits for these pro sports franchises directly translates into profits for teachers and, for those out there that aren’t hockey savvy, owning the Leafs is basically a license to print money.
I don’t have any numbers to back this up, but I’m willing to bet that a retirement plan tied to a cash cow like MLSE motivates a lot of bright individuals to become teachers and contribute toward that No. 2 world ranking in student literacy.
Smarter teachers leads to smarter students, period.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Detroit Public Schools benefited from the Lions’, Pistons’, Wings’ or Tigers’ profits?
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