Starman will be ecstatic....Seattle says no to publicly funded sports venues

Starman makes it.

OK, but could they pass a law like that federally?

 

No way. That would considered a restriction of interstate commerce and tossed out of court quickly. But U.S. municipalities and states do this sort of thing for all kinds of businesses. I believe Alabama landed a Mercedes plant with incentives that ran to $80,000 per job created.

 

NO industry in the United States sucks off local, state and federal governments for the hundreds of millions of dollars the professional sports industry does. None.

 

Good. Arco's not even drinking age yet

 

But...but....those teams put gazillions back into their local economies!!!!! ;D

 

As well they should. The Maloofs have nearly $1 billion in worth and had money to spare to expand The Palms in Vegas but can't kick in to build a new arena in Sactown? No one's going to buy that one.

 

Maybe the Kings can finally move back where they belong.



There was always something cool about the KC Kings. Maybe the alliteration, or the fact they and the Rockets made the Western Conference Finals in 1981 despite going 40-42 during the regular season.

 

Oh, many more suck off a lot more. There isn't a new manufacturing facility built these days without massive tax breaks. Heck, there's barely any new major retail project or business development that's not given some sort of break, whether TIFs or otherwise. Businesses -- not just pro sports -- a long time ago learned they could play local and state governments off each other to get huge breaks. The big difference with pro sports is that, compared to most of these other projects, they generate little revenue and employ few people.

 

... and if you add up all the tax breaks given to bring in something like a Toyota plant, they don't add up to nearly the $500 million or more it costs to build a ``state of the art'' football stadium these days.

 

Since this thread is about Seattle, check out the sweet deals Boeing gets from the local, state and federal governments, like paying no sales tax on aircraft sales, tax abatements, etc.

Not saying Seattle did the wrong thing here (even though it is closing the barn door after the horse is gone). But I also believe a significant number of Puget Sound residents think the public investment made in the Kingdome, Safeco and Qwest fields, which enabled the city to get, and then keep, the Mariners and Seahawks, as well as host numerous Final Fours, other NCAA-related events, concerts, etc., has been beneficial to the community as a whole.

 

Re: Starman will be ecstatic....Seattle says no to publicly funded sports venues

Yeah, where they belong.



Or, where they REALLY belong.

 

A few views of the billions in breaks Boeing has received:

http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/0407/040218_news_taxcracks.php

There's a growing consensus that not only are tax breaks for stadiums stupid, but so are tax breaks for business to keep them from relocating, or to attract them. At least, cities pay out WAY too much in breaks for what the businesses will generate. Which is why your property taxes keep flying higher and/or your schools are starving.