$40 Million for Soccer Stadiums
$40 Million for Soccer Stadiums
Talk about having your pandemic priorities straight.
I love soccer. I played it from a young age. It’s the only sport I regret quitting around the time I discovered the joys of marijuana as a teenager.
I attended a 1994 World Cup game in the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit and, much to the horror of my father, shit-talked two smelly Russian men when Sweden came from behind to win 3-1.
I was overjoyed when Columbus landed one of the inaugural franchises when Major League Soccer arrived in America. I couldn’t believe my luck to reside roughly 45 miles from the first soccer-specific stadium in North America.
I was also naive enough to believe the billionaire lie that public investment in sports stadiums paid for itself. Not that I evolved into a great economic mind, but I did read Field of Schemes that laid the dark machinations bare.
And yes, I realize those schemes apply to basically enough professional team for which I’ve cheered in my cursed 34 years on Hell World. But I can only fight so many battles in life and it’s not like I live in Cleveland or Los Angeles, though I would gladly move to either locale if the money were right.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed the capital budget bill into law on Tuesday. It includes $16 million for FC Cincinnati’s new stadium (on top of a previous $4 million) and $20 million for the Columbus Crew’s new stadium. (Technically this money isn’t going directly to the stadium; it’s going to “improve” infrastructure around the stadiums to make the it easier to exit and enter for the suburban fans that flock to these kinds of matches.)
FC Cincinnati owner Carl Lindner III is worth “a little” over a billion dollars. Columbus Crew owner Jimmy Haslam, who also owns the Cleveland Browns, is worth $2.9 billion.
That is to say that these guys could probably rustle $20 million like I used to with change I found in the couch to afford a $3 meal at Wendy’s in college.
FC Cincinnati’s stadium deal was brokered by none other than P.G. Sittenfeld, who is currently under FBI indictment for corruption involving a deal similar to this one:
"I am excited and I am hopeful that very, very soon we will be calling FC Cincinnati a Major League Soccer team," said Council Member P.G. Sittenfeld, who helped broker the deal that city council ultimately approved. "But I'm a yes vote today because I think this is good for the people of the city of Cincinnati and the people that I try to serve and represent."
Sittenfeld of course wasn’t trying to represent the Black residents that the stadium’s construction pushed out of their homes. F.C. Cincinnati made a lump sum payment in lieu of paying traditional property taxes for the first 10 years of its existence, after which it will revert to a tax abatement deal signed between Cincinnati Public Schools and City Council in 1999.
The Crew is also doing its part to avoid paying any money into the coffers of Columbus’ crumbling schools:
The most galling thing is Ohio has a cursed balanced budget amendment in its Constitution, despite money and deficits being fake in the first place.
The state’s revenue will likely fall off a cliff next year due to our inept handling of the coronavirus, which is why Governor Mike DeWine has yet to tap our state’s $2.9 million Rainy Day Fund. Any other difference will come at the expense of social services for the most vulnerable among us, because DeWine and the Republican legislature sure as Hell ain’t going to raise taxes on the corporations and wealthy individuals that finance their campaigns.
We can’t help people with their rent or mortgages. We can’t bail out the restaurant or bar industries. We let them operate in a pandemic to the chagrin of overall public health.
But if two billionaires need the land around their tax-abated stadiums spruced up? Why, that’s no problem at all.
Tells you everything you need to know about the priorities and morals of our ostensible leaders. No wonder this state continues to hemorrhage residents.
THOSE WMDs. Want the good life? This philosopher suggests learning from cats… The secret world of the flavor factory… The rise and fall of McDonald’s ambition plan to conquer railroads… Pandemic politics driving healthcare workers from small towns… What’s the point of nonessential work?