Did You Know Taxpayers Were Forced To Donate $700 Million to Sunday Night’s Super Bowl Venue?
Did You Know Taxpayers Were Forced To Donate $700 Million to Sunday Night’s Super Bowl Venue?
Commentary Politics
Did You Know Taxpayers Were Forced To Donate $700 Million to Sunday Night’s Super Bowl Venue?
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By Benjamin Arie
February 5, 2019 at 1:36pm
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Neither the Rams nor the Patriots may have scored big on Sunday, but it looks like the city of Atlanta sure did — and at taxpayer expense.
In a column for Reason magazine last week, libertarian conservative John Stossel blew the whistle on big government.
The Super Bowl was being played in a stadium that was financed out of the pockets of everyday Americans, all so multimillionaires can toss around a ball.
“(T)axpayers were forced to donate more than $700 million to the owner of Atlanta’s football team, billionaire Arthur Blank, to get him to build the stadium,” the author and talk show host pointed out.
He was referring to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the sophisticated but expensive home to the Atlanta Falcons and Super Bowl LIII.
“(T)he stadium cost the public at least $700m, more than any other building in NFL history,” reported The Guardian in 2017.
“Blank eventually acknowledged the present value of all this future money would be ‘close to $700 million,'” the newspaper stated.
“Add in a handful of other goodies – $30 million in sales tax rebates on construction materials, $24m in city-provided land, a pedestrian bridge that was supposed to cost $12 million but ended up coming in at almost twice that – and the final public tab could end up clearing three-quarters of a billion dollars,” the report continued.
It’s the kind of thing that both Republicans and blue-collar Democrats really should be able to agree on:
Robbing Peter to pay Paul isn’t the way forward, especially when Paul is a fat-cat billionaire and Peter doesn’t even like football.
https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/know-taxpay...ve-tribune
Did You Know Taxpayers Were Forced To Donate $700 Million to Sunday Night’s Super Bowl Venue?
Commentary Politics
Did You Know Taxpayers Were Forced To Donate $700 Million to Sunday Night’s Super Bowl Venue?
×
By Benjamin Arie
February 5, 2019 at 1:36pm
Share Tweet Email Print
Neither the Rams nor the Patriots may have scored big on Sunday, but it looks like the city of Atlanta sure did — and at taxpayer expense.
In a column for Reason magazine last week, libertarian conservative John Stossel blew the whistle on big government.
The Super Bowl was being played in a stadium that was financed out of the pockets of everyday Americans, all so multimillionaires can toss around a ball.
“(T)axpayers were forced to donate more than $700 million to the owner of Atlanta’s football team, billionaire Arthur Blank, to get him to build the stadium,” the author and talk show host pointed out.
He was referring to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the sophisticated but expensive home to the Atlanta Falcons and Super Bowl LIII.
“(T)he stadium cost the public at least $700m, more than any other building in NFL history,” reported The Guardian in 2017.
“Blank eventually acknowledged the present value of all this future money would be ‘close to $700 million,'” the newspaper stated.
“Add in a handful of other goodies – $30 million in sales tax rebates on construction materials, $24m in city-provided land, a pedestrian bridge that was supposed to cost $12 million but ended up coming in at almost twice that – and the final public tab could end up clearing three-quarters of a billion dollars,” the report continued.
It’s the kind of thing that both Republicans and blue-collar Democrats really should be able to agree on:
Robbing Peter to pay Paul isn’t the way forward, especially when Paul is a fat-cat billionaire and Peter doesn’t even like football.
https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/know-taxpay...ve-tribune
