The Regressives Ep. 11 | Empty Nests: Why Do Blue Cities Fund Stadiums?

Lost Debate

The Branch

News, Politics, Society & Culture

4.6 • 607 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2022 the NFL's Buffalo Bills announced a deal with the state of New York to build a brand new $1.4 Billion stadium in Erie County. The passage of funding between the state, the Buffalo Bills, and the NFL requires that New York taxpayers front a whopping 60% of the project - or about $850 dollars. This reignited a debate that has been raging in the US for the past two decades: Should taxpayers front the costs of large scale stadiums for billionaire owners? The answer is not easy, as every major sports league in the country has leveraged their teams to push secure taxpayer funding and the problem only seems to be getting worse. In this episode Ravi speaks with Victor Matheson, a sports economist and professor at the College of Holy Cross, who has studied stadium financing for over two decades. They discuss the history of sports stadiums in America, the arguments for and against public financing, and why this disturbing trend may not be going away. You won’t need to be a sports fan to enjoy this conversation. Subscribe to our channel: https://bit.ly/3Gs5YTF Subscribe to our Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 321-200-0570 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-lost-debate iheart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-lost-debate-88330217/ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/752ca262-2801-466d-9654-2024de72bd1f/the-lost-debate LOST DEBATE ON SOCIAL: Follow Lost Debate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostdebate/ Follow Lost Debate on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lostdebate Follow Lost Debate on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelostdebate

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Ravi Gupta, and you're listening to The Regressives. This is a narrative podcast series
0:08.5	from Lost Debate that examines progressive policies, ideas, and leaders of practice. And as a
0:13.8	veteran of progressive campaigns, I've long felt that liberals profess values and practices are out of
0:18.5	sync. And this podcast is dedicated to shining a light on those discrepancies in the hopes of
0:23.1	eliminating them.
0:24.4	And today I'm speaking with Victor Matheson, who's a sports economist and professor at the
0:28.9	College of Holy Cross who has studied stadium financing for over two decades.
0:33.7	This conversation really started after it was announced that the NFL's Buffalo Bills,
0:38.2	which is my favorite team, we're going to build a new stadium. And the stadium will cost a massive
0:43.4	$1.4 billion. And Erie County, where Buffalo is located, along with New York State, will foot
0:50.3	60% of this project, or about $850 million in taxpayer money. And so I was happy to see that my
0:58.3	beloved team, the bills, the only team that plays in New York, by the way, in the NFL, were getting a new
1:03.5	stadium, but the project reignited an old debate. And that is, should taxpayers from large-scale stadiums for billionaire owners and this is
1:13.9	exactly what Victor and I get into in today's episode we talk about the history of sports
1:18.1	stadiums in America we talk about the arguments for and against public financing of
1:22.3	stadiums and then we talk about why this trend of taxpayers footing the bill for stadiums might not be going
1:29.3	away.
1:30.1	Trust me, you won't need to be a sports fan to enjoy this conversation.
1:33.8	Let's get into it.
1:37.0	As you can imagine, news of this big deal, the new deal for a new stadium spread like wildfire
1:42.4	today.
1:42.9	The $850 million taxpayer contribution.
	...

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