My problem is that sports teams today are gigantic money making machines. If the Sonics were winning some games, it might be different... well not for me, but I think $300 million would go much further for education, homelessness, or even cutting taxes.
I agree (but I wanted to be able to mention the gold statue). Education, homelessness, health care, environment, arts, transportation, tax cuts ... I think that the benefits of arenas to economy and community are debatable in general, and there are so many things that the money would be better spent on.
I think that if the owners were passionate about keeping the team moving forward (and remaining in King County), then they would find a way to pay for their new wonder-arena without a taxpayer bailout, or they'd at least bother to be somewhat compelling in their arguement.
But they strike me as wanting the easy way out. They want a bright shiny new arena like the other kids have, they want to magically get rid of their debt, and they want the taxpayers to pay for it all. They also want to capitalize on the fact that they'd only have to extend an existing stadium tax instead of introducing a "new" one.
But that's just my opinion, and I don't get a vote.
3 comments:
Somebody else had a different question:
If the Sonics get $400 million for a new arena, what do you want?
I like the one about the gold statue.
My problem is that sports teams today are gigantic money making machines. If the Sonics were winning some games, it might be different... well not for me, but I think $300 million would go much further for education, homelessness, or even cutting taxes.
I agree (but I wanted to be able to mention the gold statue). Education, homelessness, health care, environment, arts, transportation, tax cuts ... I think that the benefits of arenas to economy and community are debatable in general, and there are so many things that the money would be better spent on.
I think that if the owners were passionate about keeping the team moving forward (and remaining in King County), then they would find a way to pay for their new wonder-arena without a taxpayer bailout, or they'd at least bother to be somewhat compelling in their arguement.
But they strike me as wanting the easy way out. They want a bright shiny new arena like the other kids have, they want to magically get rid of their debt, and they want the taxpayers to pay for it all. They also want to capitalize on the fact that they'd only have to extend an existing stadium tax instead of introducing a "new" one.
But that's just my opinion, and I don't get a vote.
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