The Real March Madness
I mean aside from that Heels/Bobcats squeaker last night. Or that Wolfpack heartbreaker. No, I’m talking here more along the lines of government subsidies, to the tune of $2.7 billion.
That’s how much the 13 venues hosting games during the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament have received in the form of government largess, a.k.a. local, state and federal tax dollars. This from the Taxpayers Protection Alliance:
Taxpayers have subsidized the construction, renovation and operation of the arenas. Handouts to these sports venues have come in a variety of forms: state and local grants, land giveaways, favorable lease arrangements, federal disaster relief funding and every type of bond imaginable.
TPA found that no stadium hosting a tournament game this year has consumed more taxpayer cash than the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Including interest, city, county and state taxpayers will spend $720 million to repay the money borrowed to build the Dome. That doesn’t include the $30 million in tax dollars spent in 2009 to install new scoreboards and credit card readers at concession stands, among other upgrades.
…
Other March Madness venues devouring tax dollars include:
* $471 million for construction of the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky;
* $216 million for construction plus $880,000 annually for operations for the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska;
* $214 million for construction of the Georgia Dome, Atlanta;
* $150.2 million for construction and renovation plus $8 million annually for operations for the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee;
* $47.6 million for construction of the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
* $42.5 million to purchase the Nationwide Arena from private owners in Columbus, Ohio;
* $35 million for construction of the U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona
* $34.5 million for construction of the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon;
* $20 million for renovations plus $1.5 million annually for operations at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina;
* $18 million for renovations at The Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and
* $16 million for land acquisition at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts
The real champ, as TPA notes, is the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, which hosts the Final Four and Championship game this year and has received nearly $650 million in taxpayer subsidies.
Slamdunk wonderful.
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