New Vikings stadium? Not with my money.
December 26th, 2009 |Let Ziggy Milf build it.
NYT:
In 1996, voters in Hamilton County approved an increase of half of one percent in the sales tax that promised to build and maintain stadiums for the Bengals and the Reds, pay Cincinnati’s public schools and give homeowners an annual property tax rebate. The stadiums were supposed to spur development of the city’s dilapidated riverfront.
But sales tax receipts have fallen so fast in the last year that the county is now scrambling to bridge a $14 million deficit in its sales tax fund. The public schools, which deferred taking their share for years, want their money.
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.
Setting aside the fact that public funds are being used to create a system where more people sit on their ass and WATCH sports, instead of creating a system where more people get off their ass and PLAY sports, I fail to see any reason why public funds should be used in order to make private citizens wealthier.
Seriously, people who allow their entire week to revolve around what millionaires do on Sunday need to get a grip. But if that’s what they choose to do then whatever. There is no reason that I need to be forced to subsidize this behavior and help make Ziggy Milf richer however.
17 Responses to “New Vikings stadium? Not with my money.”
Youth football is among the largest sport programs at any given American school from fourth or fifth grade on. If the weightlifting, running, and drills of just the practice sessions, never mind game day, isn’t athletic, I don’t know what is.
Besides, I think it was a little more than 8 months ago one Sunday that I watched some Belgian dude ride a couple of loops around a track in France. Apparently he went out and celebrated by partying in a manner befitting the millionaire he is.
@Champs: OK, and the Vikings with the new stadium would benefit youth football…how?
And how much in sales tax did you have to pay in order to subsidize that Belgian dudes team and race?
Another thing about football is that the vast majority of youth football players play their last game when they leave high school. They NEVER play again. At least with other sports like hockey, cycling, skiing, etc. people continue on and stay healthy well into the later years.
I am curious… how much charity work do the Vikings (as individual players and the organization/team) actually do? Can it be quantified?
Cause sure I’ll support the team and it’s supposed need for a new stadium if they can honestly show me how they improve my community. Not just the BS about jobs and more money being spent near the stadium (long proven to be a red herring) but actually make this a better city/community via youth sport programs, school improvements, etc.
Otherwise to hell with them. (apply above to any other large pro team)
It’s a f’ing recession and millionaires want to extract more money from the general public. The politician extortionist will get involved I’m sure and remind us of how it helps keep the local business’s afloat.
sounds like we need to crank up some neighbor football leagues. The Powderhorn Crack Pipes vs. the Seward Earth Worshipers. A bitter rivalry..
wait… isn’t golf the sport of the “sports guys” now. I know it used to be softball but I think it’s now golf. Even more so with Tiger tappin anything that moved. I know drinking durning the event was a must and it also can’t be hard enough to get winded…use a cart to make sure of that. hell, i think the courses even have little chicks drive carts around to make sure you don’t run out of booze while you’re playing. it’s pure genius.
maybe if you introduced drinking at the track more people would like it. you’d still have the “getting winded” part to deal with but isn’t each race like 5mins long and then you wait 40min for the next one? lots of time to bs and drink more. start putting out some flyers at the golf cources. the track could be HUGE! Look at cross for christ sake! it’s half party half bike race. Most of the spectators are bombed..it’s cool! (which makes me think cross in Belgium is akin to football here…a bunch of drunk people gathering on a weekend to watch doped athletes do their sport) Bring booze to the track 2010!
@Smithers: ever hear of The Lance Effect? Having the sport out front and engaging people on a regular basis is what drives interest. This is why nobody gives two craps about most Olympic sports for 47 months at a time.
@Champs: Well thank god we have the Vikings to bring awareness to such an unknown sport that 99% of them will never play again following their 19th birthday…
This is why nobody gives two craps about most Olympic sports for 47 months at a time.
and by nobody you mean fat ass Americans. notice how the most successful and popular sports in other countries are actually played by large numbers of adults in those countries?
Major league sports are party to blame for turning a nation of doers into a nation of watchers.
Additionally, professional football is stupid.
@Smithers: First of all, professional football is awesome, whatever country you live in, but that’s a personal preference.
Second, cycling is as bad as hockey, as far as junior sports go. Club and bro deals notwithstanding, my pockets aren’t deep enough to keep a kid fitted to at least one bike every year and transported around the upper Midwest.
Dovetail that together: my ex-boss is a gym rat, long after he quit playing football after college. As a Canadian, you might expect him to play hockey, but his parents didn’t want to deal with the BS of 6am ice times and expensive out-of-town weekend tournaments.
The kids who were on the football field have a big head start against the ones who sat around playing Madden. Activity doesn’t stop just because you don’t play a sport anymore.
@Champs: Second, cycling is as bad as hockey, as far as junior sports go.
cycling is a life long sport in any form. you don’t have to race.
I remain totally and throughly unconvinced as to any value what-so-ever for the MN Vikings to stay in MN much less take my money to build them a totally unearned cathedral to their lameness.
I can probably think of 10,000 better things to spend my tax money on that will actually benefit the community financially if not socially.
Screw the Vikings.
Go Vikes!
Cincinnati’s sales tax didn’t work because Kentucky has a lower sales tax and no tax on alcohol. You can park, dine, shop and drink in Newport and walk to Paul Brown or TGABP. The river front was never developed on the Ohio side. This is was a poorly thought out idea and the worst possible scenario for economic effect by a stadium.
I feel that pro sports do play an important role in encouraging active lifestyles in youth, generating greater tax revenues directly attributed to the team (construction, food, tickets, merchandise) and an indirect effect in civic pride, employee retention and recruitment, and tourism.
I feel the same way about the stadiums as I do about the Guthrie or Hennepin Theatres.
As the brothers in Kansas City used to say…Spend some of that GD money. It’s not like I want to contribute one fucking cent so your kids can go to school. Don’t bore me with that benefit to society shit. The truth of the matter is that your tax money is spent on good stuff and some silly shit too. Furthermore, I just saw the movie Nine (with my homeboys) and just loved Smither’s dance number.
I totally agree with you on this one. The Vikings are a business. Like any other business, they should have to make the investment and build their own stadium. The money is there and if they don’t want to build it themselves, then find another state.
Rainy days and young conservatives always get me down.
@Dube’: If you and I can agree then it MUST be correct. Cheers and Happy New Years!
“When Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell secured funding for his $300 million playpen, he commented–in a rare moment of candor–to reporters, ‘The pride and presence of a professional football team is more important than 30 libraries.’”