Panem et circenses. The satirical poet Juvenal mocked the Roman populace for surrendering their societal ideals to the ruling class in exchange for ‘bread and circus’. Karl Marx updated Juvena’s mockery with his view that “religion is the opium of the masses”
Modern day sports have supplanted circus and religion as the ‘opium of the masses.’ The addicted public will pay any price to keep ‘their’ sports teams in town. Oligarchic sports franchise owners operate like drug dealers by preying on the public addiction.
New stadiums increase team revenue streams but prove economically unfeasible if financed privately. So team owners jack the price of their opiates through a leveraging strategy employed to extort money from the addicted in the form of public subsidies.
Timing proved paramount in Kansas City. The Chiefs exalted public standing will decline when its’ amazing dynastic run inevitably ends in the not too distant future. So when their local populace voted down public subsidies last year, the teams owners moved across the state line and enticed—by who knows by what means—Kansas politicos to offer financial aid of up to 70% of the cost of the teams’ stadiums. Kansas legislators even established an artificial deadline for the teams to ‘accept’ the deal.
Missouri ‘had’ to respond quickly, so Governor Mike Kehoe called for a special session to save ‘our’ teams. The best thing that happened to Kansas City was the tornado that hit St. Louis. Our City needed financial aid for the people who lost their homes and businesses. So state politicians brokered a deal providing aid to St. Louisans whose lives were devasted due to an “Act of God” in exchange for financial support for the billionaire gods of sport to build a new ballyard for the Royals, and expansively upgrade the Chiefs stadium.
The public cost totals an estimated $ 1.5 Billion over 30 years. Promises were reportedly made to smooth the Red Bird feathers with future financial help for ‘our’ ballclub’s owners for the planned maintenance and upgrade of the ‘ancient’ 20-year old Busch Stadium .
The Post-Dispatch’s was less than zealous in following its creed to fight predatory plutocracy when it waited to run its front page story Stadium Deal Relies on Pure Emotion until after the Legislative vote approving the giveaway to plutocrats.
Even more peculiar, on the eve of that legislative vote, Lynn Schmidt’s Sunday op-ed piece made a plea to the ballclub’s management to sign her favorite Cardinal Ryan Helsley, no matter the cost. Perhaps the team can afford to dole out $100 Million over 7 years to relief pitcher Helsley when we relieve team owners of their costs to maintain their stadium.
“Football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.” George Orwell.
2 replies on “The Game of Subsidizing Billionaire Sports Franchise Owners”
Yep. We are slaves to the Sport Makers’
Pretty hard to not be jaded these days when it comes to big league sports. We are expected to be diehard fans that live and die with our team’ success, but our favorite player can leave for a few dollars more and go play for an arch-rival. The owners are worse, holding cities and regions hostage with the threat of moving the entire franchise. There is certainly value in being a “big league” city. But more and more owners are infringing on that value by establishing their own entertainment zones. Television dollars, ticket sales, concessions and parking aren’t enough. Now they are competing with the small businesses outside the stadiums that are dependent on the increased number of visitors sporting events attract. There are ownership cartels and players unions, but who represents the fans? Ironically, with a little self-discipline the fans could put themselves back in the power dynamics of sports. No television viewers for a year, no ticket sales for a year, no concession or parking revenue for a year and there would be a rapid reestablishment of what should be the primacy of the fans.