Oakland A's headed to Las Vegas

I was in Vegas (for something else) last December while that was going on. MGM Grand looked like a scene out of "Junior Bonner".

 

Wouldn’t the legislature go into Special Session if needed?

 

Few public crises are as urgent as the burning need to give $500 million to a billionaire.

 

I like giving money to billionaires after several consecutive quarters of no growth.

 

What we needed, some 75 years ago, was an ironclad law strictly controlling the use of public money in any form (facility financing, tax breaks, infrastructure improvements, revenue and attendance guarantees, broadcasting blackouts, scheduling control, etc etc yadda yadda) to build sports facilities.

It should be a lifetime poison pill: if a pro sports franchise accepts a tax financed stadium, the franchise can never ever leave. Ever. And if they try, the league is on the hook for massive damages.

But we didn't get it, and we'll never get it, so now it's a never ending race to see which city can more slavishly slurp the billionaires. If one city puts its foot down and says no, the franchise skips off to someplace who says yes.

 

Of course, that would have stuck the Athletics in Kansas City, in the publicly owned Municipal Stadium. Once the 1970s arrived, the Chiefs and Athletics would have had to get together and figured out some way to finance major renovations, expansion, or building new stadiums in KC.

 

What I love about this - is the "taxpayers" that will be on the hook are the hordes who travel to Vegas and pay another $1.85 a night for a hotel room - not the citizens of Vegas. Makes me wonder how easy it would be for Hawaii to build a stadium if they just put tourists on the hook.

 

Yeah but that money could be used for stuff like schools, libraries, etc etc yadda yadda

Hawaii in particular would be a situation where building major spectator arenas would certainly be a boost to tourism businesses. Building Aloha Stadium in the 70s was probably a great idea, but building it out of cheap-ass corrosion-prone concrete and steel probably not so much.

 

absurd this is still being done in a place where so much squawking about public dollars is done for performance and profit. We will never fucking learn as a people.

 

Honolulu will get a team at the same time London does. The travel involved for most teams means it’s not practical.

 

The name is Rio
But the place is freakin sad.
Run and miserable.
And the staff always looks mad.