Sweetheart deals using public monies to fund stadiums have backfired across the country, causing more drain than gain.
Ken Belson of the New York Times focuses on the example of Cincinnati, where voters approved a sales tax increase to fund building a stadium for the Bengals and the Reds. With sales tax revenue plummeting, the city is left holding the bag for the sports center.
Belson writes, "The teams have not volunteered to rewrite their leases. So in the coming weeks, the county plans to cut basic services, lower its legal bills and drain a bond reserve fund with no plan for paying it back.
'Anyone looking at this objectively knows it's a train wreck,' said Dusty Rhodes, the county auditor. 'I told them they were making a big mistake, but they didn't want to hear me.'
Cincinnati is hardly alone."
FULL STORY: Stadium Boom Deepens Municipal Woes
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Sports teams often coerce cities into contributing public funds toward the building of new stadiums. Numerous reports indicate that it's a bad deal for cities with little to no positive economic impact, writes Neal DeMause.
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