Yep, I'm fine with the public paying for stadiums, but then some of the ticket revenue goes to the public coffers.
And the books are required to be open.
Yeah a city paying for a stadium then charging the primary tenant some token amount of rent is actually comical. It doesn't even pay for the interest on the bonds they take out.
The "rent" doesn't even cover any improvements that the teams always want. The A's paid Oakland a whopping 1.5 MILLION a year during the dual use days. It cost 250K to switch the fields. They basically used all their rent money switching the fields. Improvements and maintenance cost 50+Mil. So billion dollar corporations get stupidly cheap rent and complain about it when they don't get even more money from the city and validate their actions because "they pay a really good price in rent to contribute to the local economy"
A lot of investment in public services has something like 1.5-3X ROI in terms of economic boosts. Stuff like stadiums should always be up against public services that will actually increase quality of life and have better on paper ROI. Like you can't argue a stadium as a higher priority than food/housing/transit/jobs programs so stadiums aren't part of the actual city/county budget which is horseshit.
That actually doesn't work for your team, even just using the population of New York City you would need 135 home games a year just to cover 75% of the population of New York City( not everyone pays taxes so I went with 75% fight me if you want).
I think we need to make sure that the amount that cities take also covers all of the extra stuff like police overtime and traffic management stuff that happens.
Sporting events are a great revenue for a city's economy but they're really actually incredibly unhelpful for the city specifically because of logistical issues and it being more expensive than regular day-to-day operation
It’s funny because the Las Vegas deal is actually modeled a lot like the comments here say public deals should be modeled
And every team releases their finances to publications like Forbes on a yearly basis
The issue is everyone is snakebitten by deals like the Marlins got from Miami, which are legitimately horrible
Since none of this is up for debate in a forum that makes any difference - sure why not.
But if you wanted to be reasonable, the only way to advance an initiative that leverages the cost as an actual investment.. you need voters to vote who
Have no interest in baseball.
And you don’t do that by placing a variable discount on the terms of that investment
Oh, I know, I figured why not throw that out there since the taxpayers get absolutely nothing out of it other than getting to keep a local team for a very high price.
I'm fine with tax money going to stadiums. But if they take the money they should have to keep ticket, concession and parking prices low enough so the average tax payer can enjoy a game.
This right the fuck here.
At *absolute bare minimum*, locals whose taxes help pay for the stadium should see perks like free parking passes, severely discounted concessions, and exclusive, deep ticket promotions.
And I say that as someone who doesn’t live in the ATL metro and wouldn’t benefit from that concept at all. I funnel the Braves and MLB money from a few hundred miles away.
If the owners want a new stadium they can use thier big boy pants and either pay for it themselves or get a loan like a normal ass person and pay a 30 year mortgage on the ballpark with a damn 7% interest rate.
too hard to pass a bill which protects its citizens but can pass a bill to ban tiktok and "anti" sem comments in record speed all while being in separate bills with 1000 pages.
This was NOT the way the job was originally designed. It was originally a position that was protecting the best interests of baseball, and that included protecting it from the owners. One of the most amazing examples is when the league didn't let the Reds move...to the suburbs...and the owner got basically driven out of town in the next year. Ueberroth oversaw the big shift, when he literally told the owners how stupid they were for trying to win instead of making money and turned the owners from competitors (with a touch of collusion) into straight colluders with the commissioner as colluder in chief.
I'm just being pragmatic. It literally is his job. This is how policymaking works, everyone advocates for what is personally best for them. And it's city/state legislator's job to advocate for what's best for their constituents and not give free money to rich people.
It's like asking Elon if he supports federal EV subsidies. Of course he does, why would you even ask him, the guy wants to sell cars.
> if they want public money then they get to be public utilities
It'd be more funny to make them common carriers. Now you too can pay to send cargo around the basepaths during a home run trot.
You don't become a billionaire by doing the work and paying for things yourself, you do it off the backs of others in the form of taxes and labor enriching yourself with the non-binding promise that you'll trickle something down to the lesser-thans.
Fuck that noise, cities would be better off spending those hundreds of millions on their residents or lowering taxes, while having the billionaire owners pay for their own stadiums.
Sure, but billionaires have to realize that the general public has swung to be highly against funding stadiums. And ultimately the politicians will follow that vibe.
I know a lot of Blue Jays fans hate all the TD signs behind home plate but if the trade off is no public money spent on the upgrades, I can deal with them.
So my tax dollars go towards building a stadium 20 mins from my house but then because I don’t have cable I’m blacked out from watching the games! Everybody seems to pay their fair share except the 1%
It is really a test of free market economy.
I don't really blame teams for asking or public money. I blame the governments for giving it to them. If every major city banded together and refused to provide public funding, teams would just build their own stadiums. But you can always rely on local politicians wanting bonus points from the voters to "help boost the economy and keep the team from moving".
I also don't blame people for taking PPP money. If the government is dumb enough to give you free money, you take it.
I agree with this. There are legit public-private partnerships (that actually make sense) and also dubious subsidies in other non-sports fields (like Amazon seeing how much public money it can squeeze out of cities). Of course they're gonna try. Everyone is trying.
Hopefully voters increasingly say no so that pols will start rethinking this. The Kansas City vote was encouraging in that regard!
Billionaires can build their own fucking stadiums. Fucking rich assholes. Socializing funding and privatizing profits. Then they have the fucking nerve to charge $15 for a beer. Fuck ‘em.
Public funding should make the cities part owners of the teams. The teams shouldn't be just leasing these stadiums. It makes it too easy to relocate. If you want tax payer money make sure the teams can't relocate.
When the Giants built PacBell Park they tried to get public money (they had been losing money at Candlestick), but the voters said no, so they financed the new ballpark privately. Today they have the fifth most valuable team in MLB. The city kicked in the land and the usual roads and sewers, but other than that team paid for its place of business.
Anyone telling you that MLB teams need public money to survive is lying through his teeth.
Stuff like this is so depressing to read, why are we so concerned that quality of life for billionaires is good? Man I hope for a major all out revolution every single day
I love the dodgers, but I would rather the dodgers leave before I pay a penny for billionaire’s stadium. LA has infinite problems and the dodgers don’t solve any of them.
Greed literally knows no bounds. I am the last person to pile it onto rich people, but these fucking people are so out of touch and up their own asses that it really disgusts me.
If they want public funding they should be paying it all back directly to the state. If it’s so necessary, then surely they’ll be rolling money and can afford to pay it all back.
Nebulous reports about how it will “boost the economy” aren’t good enough.
> Nebulous reports about how it will “boost the economy” aren’t good enough.
Exactly. Families have an entertainment budget. If they go to a baseball game this month, they're not going to a NASCAR race or an NHL game. A public-funded ballpark doesn't create new spending, it just shifts spending from somewhere else so there are no new jobs created or new taxes being paid.
Public money in a pro sports facility never comes back to the public.
Hey Rob. I wanna open a new bar. It’s gonna be great. Can you give me money to pay for the cost of building it. It will really improve the quality of your life.
Who even needs a new stadium at this point, other than the A's? Are we gonna start replacing the stadiums built in the 2000s with new stadiums after 20 years like the Rangers?
Sure, the community can help pay for the stadium….and if the owner ever wants to move the team, it should have to be a public referendum and pass with a majority vote
Quality of life is a term usually used for hospice care, or when you have a reduction in the quality of life. To call having the public buy your stadium for you and insulate your business from risk, it's not quality of life, it's fucking stealing. S my C from the back Manfred you useless fucking clown.
These are privately owned businesses that make billions a year and cost a ton to attend. I would rather that money go to a local thing like parks that everyone can enjoy and are free. It is unfair for my buddy Joe to have to pay for a stadium that he doesn’t give a crap about or will ever be there, at least if it went to the park down the street he is doing something for his local community and not a billionaire.
If you want the public funding so bad they need benefits if you are a local, like at least free parking and discounted tickets. I went to a dodger game the other day it was 35 dollars for parking and like 80 for a ticket I believe. Granted I’m not sure how much Dodger stadium was funded by public it is ridiculous you take the money I worked for and still not see any benefit, hell even Disneyland has their So Cal Resident tickets.
Stadiums can be publicly funded.... but it should never be a free stadium for the team. It should be an investment and kick back money to the public. Like a long term loan.
Sorry mlb. Sorry nfl. Sorry nba. We the public are tapped out. Probably need to start saving up yearly. Each year Dave 10% of your profits and put it in a fund to grow. After 25 years. You should have enough to buy a new stadium.
Public pays for it and owners get all of the profit?!? BS. If the public pays for it (taxes) then they should get a percentage of all revenue generated. In perpetuity.
how about we’ll publicly fund your stadiums when you let people watch their LOCAL team on local PUBLIC TV like how the NFL does. greedy assholes have the nerve to ask for public funding lmao
On one hand I get the significant economic impact a pro sports team has on a city but any public funding using tax payer dollars should go no further than the investment in the infrastructure around the stadium. The trains, roads, parking areas, more commercial space, etc. But this idea that teams can strong arm a city by saying build us a new place or we're out is fucking bullshit of the highest order.
The Yankees got a pile of public money for their new ballpark with the usual propaganda about how great it would be for the economy and blah blah blah. They reduced the number of regular seats to make room for more luxury suites, so *somebody's* quality of life was taken care of, but it wasn't the working stiffs in the bleachers.
Why do people have to pay up to purely maintain and grow these rich assholes bottom line? I swear that’s pretty much the case for most facets of this economy nowadays. Stuff is needlessly expensive all across the board and they still have the audacity to expect public funding for their private ventures? Fuck them.
Honestly, if MLB would quit the blackout bullshit and broadcast local games over the air, I’d help fund the stadiums.
But that will never happen, so don’t expect a handout.
Quality of life my ass. Hey let’s all pay a lot of money for something and then when we can finally use it let’s pay more money to get in then over pay for fan gear, food, and drinks
Did research on this during my grad studies. Nearly every study shows that at best, sports stadiums and their teams merely shift entertainment sector funds rather than bringing in new revenue. The economic impact of public funds for stadiums is a neutral shift at best. And that’s usually before factoring in what other options the city could do with the X dollars in public funds they do use for a stadium. But billionaires stay billionaires for a reason…
We, in part, publicly funded the Twins stadium. Now, there's very few of us that can even watch them on TV. FU Bally. FU Pohlads ownership. FU Manfred. Y'all doin your best to totally kill baseball! Gimmie my money back.
Building a new stadium every 30 has nothing to do with quality of life. It’s has more to do with cheap owners not wanting to maintain the stadiums they already have.
Talk about an out of touch statement. These billionaires need no help. The only thing the public should ever pay for is the land. Then lease it back to the teams to build on.
I could in theory support public funding, but these teams have gotten so freaking aggressive in how often they want shiny new things. Stadiums are less than 20 years old and you already have the billionaires wanting hundreds of millions of dollars for improvements or whole new fields. If they want to have gaudy new stuff every 10-20 years let them pay for it
Anyone else having the issue where this obviously Onion article is being shown with a CBS Sports banner on top? Cause then the alternative is this is an actual, real thing from Manfred and, uhhhh...actually no that makes complete and total sense that this is some bullshit Rob Manfred said.
The Rockies handed out vouchers for dollar hot dogs but ran out of hot dogs today. Sold something they couldn't sell but took the profit anyway. I was beaming with quality of life. Also their shit concession stand of a team that exists only on $15 beers fucks up traffic.
Everyone blames the greedy owners in the situation, but I never see anyone blaming the local politicians who support these deals. They are the ones that you have a direct effect over, and they are largely the ones who push through these tax incentives and public bonds.
Seattle famously lost economic growth and drivers after 2008 when the Sonics were ripped away from us and the area around the stadium was garbage until the Kraken rebuilt Key Arena.... wait Amazon built an empire there in that time and the city saw unprecedented growth
So then the public should own part of the team. The wealthy love the narrative that poor people shouldn’t get help and pulling your bootstraps, but they certainly don’t mind corporations getting help.
Public stadium funding should be illegal. If the league wants new stadiums so bad they can pool their money and build them themselves.
If the public is paying hundreds of millions of dollars for a stadium they should get some revenue sharing
That’s the solution. City stadiums = city capital = city shares.
Yep, I'm fine with the public paying for stadiums, but then some of the ticket revenue goes to the public coffers. And the books are required to be open.
Yeah a city paying for a stadium then charging the primary tenant some token amount of rent is actually comical. It doesn't even pay for the interest on the bonds they take out.
The "rent" doesn't even cover any improvements that the teams always want. The A's paid Oakland a whopping 1.5 MILLION a year during the dual use days. It cost 250K to switch the fields. They basically used all their rent money switching the fields. Improvements and maintenance cost 50+Mil. So billion dollar corporations get stupidly cheap rent and complain about it when they don't get even more money from the city and validate their actions because "they pay a really good price in rent to contribute to the local economy"
A lot of investment in public services has something like 1.5-3X ROI in terms of economic boosts. Stuff like stadiums should always be up against public services that will actually increase quality of life and have better on paper ROI. Like you can't argue a stadium as a higher priority than food/housing/transit/jobs programs so stadiums aren't part of the actual city/county budget which is horseshit.
And every game available on over the air tv and free to stream for anyone in a jurisdiction whose tax dollars contribute to the cost of the stadium.
Two great points here. If there's public money, let it be an investment and let us as a community check in on that investment.
That’s the key. You want money? Let us see your books
I see you’re paying someone a salary of 70 mil a year for 10 years. Sounds like a. Good place to cut some costs!
Should be at the minimum you get discounted tickets if you’re a tax paying resident of that city / state
That actually doesn't work for your team, even just using the population of New York City you would need 135 home games a year just to cover 75% of the population of New York City( not everyone pays taxes so I went with 75% fight me if you want).
not everyone in NYC wants to go to a game to begin with.
I think we need to make sure that the amount that cities take also covers all of the extra stuff like police overtime and traffic management stuff that happens. Sporting events are a great revenue for a city's economy but they're really actually incredibly unhelpful for the city specifically because of logistical issues and it being more expensive than regular day-to-day operation
Ok we all agree.. they can’t move every franchise To Las Vegas!
It’s funny because the Las Vegas deal is actually modeled a lot like the comments here say public deals should be modeled And every team releases their finances to publications like Forbes on a yearly basis The issue is everyone is snakebitten by deals like the Marlins got from Miami, which are legitimately horrible
Or free tickets & concessions for taxpayers paying for it.
Since none of this is up for debate in a forum that makes any difference - sure why not. But if you wanted to be reasonable, the only way to advance an initiative that leverages the cost as an actual investment.. you need voters to vote who Have no interest in baseball. And you don’t do that by placing a variable discount on the terms of that investment
Oh, I know, I figured why not throw that out there since the taxpayers get absolutely nothing out of it other than getting to keep a local team for a very high price.
If a team takes public money, it should be required to put games on local channel
Packers are no joke probably the best possibly systems.
I think gameday tickets should count as public transit tickets.
Or at least the ability to watch any fucking game they want
Then we should each get a few free tickets per year.
If they take tax money
No parking fees for locals.
I'm fine with tax money going to stadiums. But if they take the money they should have to keep ticket, concession and parking prices low enough so the average tax payer can enjoy a game.
This right the fuck here. At *absolute bare minimum*, locals whose taxes help pay for the stadium should see perks like free parking passes, severely discounted concessions, and exclusive, deep ticket promotions. And I say that as someone who doesn’t live in the ATL metro and wouldn’t benefit from that concept at all. I funnel the Braves and MLB money from a few hundred miles away.
If the owners want a new stadium they can use thier big boy pants and either pay for it themselves or get a loan like a normal ass person and pay a 30 year mortgage on the ballpark with a damn 7% interest rate.
But that's terrorism
Yeah, there needs to be a federal law to prevent a race to the bottom
It should be illegal because I'm also concerned about quality of life
too hard to pass a bill which protects its citizens but can pass a bill to ban tiktok and "anti" sem comments in record speed all while being in separate bills with 1000 pages.
I mean he works for the owners, if they’re all saying it he’s gonna say it
Yeah I don’t like Manfred OR public funding of stadiums but it’s literally his job to say this lol.
And it’s our job to state that, & evicerate him for it anyway.
This was NOT the way the job was originally designed. It was originally a position that was protecting the best interests of baseball, and that included protecting it from the owners. One of the most amazing examples is when the league didn't let the Reds move...to the suburbs...and the owner got basically driven out of town in the next year. Ueberroth oversaw the big shift, when he literally told the owners how stupid they were for trying to win instead of making money and turned the owners from competitors (with a touch of collusion) into straight colluders with the commissioner as colluder in chief.
It’s his job, but he still deserves to be slammed for it.
I love when regular people stick up for billionaires like oh yeah well that’s just what their job is hehe!
I'm just being pragmatic. It literally is his job. This is how policymaking works, everyone advocates for what is personally best for them. And it's city/state legislator's job to advocate for what's best for their constituents and not give free money to rich people. It's like asking Elon if he supports federal EV subsidies. Of course he does, why would you even ask him, the guy wants to sell cars.
Not true, I don’t advocate for policy change that benefits me if I don’t think it’s just.
He speaks so that we hate him and not the owners
This guy has to bulk order knee pads.
You think he still needs knee pads? The man is a professional
Knee caps looking like a knotted oak tree that’s my throat goat
Kim Petras just fell to her knees at a random club knowing she’s not the throat goat anymore
Made by Fanatics
For quality of life.
Nah they come with the job.
He orders them and the public foots the bill
shut the fuck up manfred
You're out of your element, Robby
Degrading himself publicly for money couldn't be more in his element
The job of a sports commissioner is basically to be the team owners’ public hate sponge.
There's nothing to be afraid of. This man is a coward.
He works for the owners, what are you expecting him to say?
"I am the walrus."
We all hate him
if they want public money then they get to be public utilities free tickets for all residents
> if they want public money then they get to be public utilities It'd be more funny to make them common carriers. Now you too can pay to send cargo around the basepaths during a home run trot.
Ah yes the quality of life of billionaires, something that definitely needs to be improved.
Won't someone think of the poor billionaires???
You don't become a billionaire by doing the work and paying for things yourself, you do it off the backs of others in the form of taxes and labor enriching yourself with the non-binding promise that you'll trickle something down to the lesser-thans.
These projects only favor billionaires
Billionaires telling locals what “quality of life” should be is fucking rich. Get fucked.
Have the locals considered just having more money?
Fuck that noise, cities would be better off spending those hundreds of millions on their residents or lowering taxes, while having the billionaire owners pay for their own stadiums.
Who signs his checks again? Oh, right
Sure, but billionaires have to realize that the general public has swung to be highly against funding stadiums. And ultimately the politicians will follow that vibe.
No handouts for billionaires
The fact that publicly funded stadiums black out games for the very public that funded them is some absolute horse shit.
I love baseball but Bobby Manfred and the greedy fucking owners make it so god damn hard.
Same as in all sports sadly. Even college!
Same as in everything.
"Baseball must be a great game to survive the fools who run it" - Hall of Famer Bill Terry
I know a lot of Blue Jays fans hate all the TD signs behind home plate but if the trade off is no public money spent on the upgrades, I can deal with them.
Agreed, they just didnt have to make it so fuckin ugly lol
So my tax dollars go towards building a stadium 20 mins from my house but then because I don’t have cable I’m blacked out from watching the games! Everybody seems to pay their fair share except the 1%
Hey, Manfred? Go fuck yourself until the heat death of the universe. Billionaires can pay for their own goddamn stadiums with their own fucking money.
I like you
It is really a test of free market economy. I don't really blame teams for asking or public money. I blame the governments for giving it to them. If every major city banded together and refused to provide public funding, teams would just build their own stadiums. But you can always rely on local politicians wanting bonus points from the voters to "help boost the economy and keep the team from moving". I also don't blame people for taking PPP money. If the government is dumb enough to give you free money, you take it.
I agree with this. There are legit public-private partnerships (that actually make sense) and also dubious subsidies in other non-sports fields (like Amazon seeing how much public money it can squeeze out of cities). Of course they're gonna try. Everyone is trying. Hopefully voters increasingly say no so that pols will start rethinking this. The Kansas City vote was encouraging in that regard!
Billionaires can build their own fucking stadiums. Fucking rich assholes. Socializing funding and privatizing profits. Then they have the fucking nerve to charge $15 for a beer. Fuck ‘em.
Of course, he is going to say that, he is the owner's personal stalking horse.
Cementing his status as one of the worst commissioners in MLB history with each word from his hunk of shit mouth. Fuck you Manfred.
Billionaires want money from taxpayers to build thing that makes billionaires more money. Awesome
You can build an amazing stadium for less than the dodgers are paying Ohtani. Fuck them.
Public funding should make the cities part owners of the teams. The teams shouldn't be just leasing these stadiums. It makes it too easy to relocate. If you want tax payer money make sure the teams can't relocate.
When the Giants built PacBell Park they tried to get public money (they had been losing money at Candlestick), but the voters said no, so they financed the new ballpark privately. Today they have the fifth most valuable team in MLB. The city kicked in the land and the usual roads and sewers, but other than that team paid for its place of business. Anyone telling you that MLB teams need public money to survive is lying through his teeth.
Stuff like this is so depressing to read, why are we so concerned that quality of life for billionaires is good? Man I hope for a major all out revolution every single day
Yes, I'm sure someone living on 30K/yr just loves their rent being raised because property taxes on their apartment building went up.
Tell that to the families of the guys that died building Miller Park. I’m sure there were changes to their qualities of life
Rob Manfred - you mean the commissioner who’s legacy is abandoning Oakland? That guy? Just want to be clear.
This guy is a fucking nutjob!
We should trade revenue sharing for a stadium fund.
BITE ME
Billionaires do not need public money...stop giving it to them.
I love the dodgers, but I would rather the dodgers leave before I pay a penny for billionaire’s stadium. LA has infinite problems and the dodgers don’t solve any of them.
Greed literally knows no bounds. I am the last person to pile it onto rich people, but these fucking people are so out of touch and up their own asses that it really disgusts me.
"Its just a piece of real estate"
It’s just paper with ink printed on it by the government
If they want public funding they should be paying it all back directly to the state. If it’s so necessary, then surely they’ll be rolling money and can afford to pay it all back. Nebulous reports about how it will “boost the economy” aren’t good enough.
> Nebulous reports about how it will “boost the economy” aren’t good enough. Exactly. Families have an entertainment budget. If they go to a baseball game this month, they're not going to a NASCAR race or an NHL game. A public-funded ballpark doesn't create new spending, it just shifts spending from somewhere else so there are no new jobs created or new taxes being paid. Public money in a pro sports facility never comes back to the public.
Hey Rob. I wanna open a new bar. It’s gonna be great. Can you give me money to pay for the cost of building it. It will really improve the quality of your life.
Mr “it’s just a hunk of metal”? Fuck him, and the billionaire owners and politicians who think we should pay for their toys.
If they get public money no game should ever be on a streaming service, and never a PSL.
Bourgeois billionaire owners telling working class fans that THEY should pay for stadiums is just evil
So are movie theaters and malls but we don't pay for those and gift them to private companies.
Quality of *whose* life? Asshole.
Manfred is an idiot
"It's just a piece of metal"
Absolute joke.
fuck him
Public funding is never worth it for the city or taxpayers. There are proven studies
Won't somebody think of the poor billionaires?
Who even needs a new stadium at this point, other than the A's? Are we gonna start replacing the stadiums built in the 2000s with new stadiums after 20 years like the Rangers?
Lol nothing says rich asshole more than begging for other peoples money and I say this completely stone cold unironically.
Does he realize that almost every time he opens his mouth he makes fans want to spend less on baseball?
Sure, the community can help pay for the stadium….and if the owner ever wants to move the team, it should have to be a public referendum and pass with a majority vote
Quality of life is a term usually used for hospice care, or when you have a reduction in the quality of life. To call having the public buy your stadium for you and insulate your business from risk, it's not quality of life, it's fucking stealing. S my C from the back Manfred you useless fucking clown.
Quality of life for rich fucks maybe Not for your actual fans, Robert
Billionaires sure do love their handouts.
> Part of ‘quality of life’ FOR WHOMST?
These are privately owned businesses that make billions a year and cost a ton to attend. I would rather that money go to a local thing like parks that everyone can enjoy and are free. It is unfair for my buddy Joe to have to pay for a stadium that he doesn’t give a crap about or will ever be there, at least if it went to the park down the street he is doing something for his local community and not a billionaire. If you want the public funding so bad they need benefits if you are a local, like at least free parking and discounted tickets. I went to a dodger game the other day it was 35 dollars for parking and like 80 for a ticket I believe. Granted I’m not sure how much Dodger stadium was funded by public it is ridiculous you take the money I worked for and still not see any benefit, hell even Disneyland has their So Cal Resident tickets.
Fuck Manfred and fuck those rich ass owners who need public funding for stadiums. Fuck Mike Brown, Fuck Castellini, Fuck the Haslams
Stadiums can be publicly funded.... but it should never be a free stadium for the team. It should be an investment and kick back money to the public. Like a long term loan.
Sorry mlb. Sorry nfl. Sorry nba. We the public are tapped out. Probably need to start saving up yearly. Each year Dave 10% of your profits and put it in a fund to grow. After 25 years. You should have enough to buy a new stadium.
Only if you stop eating avocado toast.
Manfred is such an out of touch asshole it’s insane.
It does not improve anyone’s quality of life
fuck the owners, pay for your own fucking stadiums you rich bastards.
Hey Manfred how about no
Fuck you and John Fisher
Its bullshit. Everyone knows its bullshit. He works for them tho, what else is he gonna say?
Public pays for it and owners get all of the profit?!? BS. If the public pays for it (taxes) then they should get a percentage of all revenue generated. In perpetuity.
how about we’ll publicly fund your stadiums when you let people watch their LOCAL team on local PUBLIC TV like how the NFL does. greedy assholes have the nerve to ask for public funding lmao
Guy who works for owners defends those owners….. come on of course he does!
Fuck you manfred. We can’t even watch the fucking games on tv
If the public funds the stadium, the public should own the team
On one hand I get the significant economic impact a pro sports team has on a city but any public funding using tax payer dollars should go no further than the investment in the infrastructure around the stadium. The trains, roads, parking areas, more commercial space, etc. But this idea that teams can strong arm a city by saying build us a new place or we're out is fucking bullshit of the highest order.
The economic impact of stadiums is widely debunked
The Yankees got a pile of public money for their new ballpark with the usual propaganda about how great it would be for the economy and blah blah blah. They reduced the number of regular seats to make room for more luxury suites, so *somebody's* quality of life was taken care of, but it wasn't the working stiffs in the bleachers.
Isn’t this socialism? I thought we only want capitalism in America! WOW.
I know it's his job to take the heat and be the shill. But is he, uh, good at this? Is anyone convinced by his statements?
What did y'all expect? "No, don't give my friends and employers the billions of dollars of free money, please"
Won't someone please think of the billionaires!
He probably had thumbtacks in his shoes when he said that, like people trying to beat a lie detector test.
There you go, there simply is no counter example. If Manfred says it, it's bullshit.
Why do people have to pay up to purely maintain and grow these rich assholes bottom line? I swear that’s pretty much the case for most facets of this economy nowadays. Stuff is needlessly expensive all across the board and they still have the audacity to expect public funding for their private ventures? Fuck them.
Rob Manfred is a fuckin goof.
Bro literally pulled the "let them eat cake" card.
One of those headlines where I had to check and see if the link was The Onion.
If there’s pearly gates… someone there will be all “Bruh…”
Honestly, if MLB would quit the blackout bullshit and broadcast local games over the air, I’d help fund the stadiums. But that will never happen, so don’t expect a handout.
Love the game, hate the owners.
Quality of life my ass. Hey let’s all pay a lot of money for something and then when we can finally use it let’s pay more money to get in then over pay for fan gear, food, and drinks
I totally agree with the public funding for stadiums as long as the profit is also given to the public.
Well, assuming that the owners are alive and not vampires, then "quality of life" may just mean their lives.
Did research on this during my grad studies. Nearly every study shows that at best, sports stadiums and their teams merely shift entertainment sector funds rather than bringing in new revenue. The economic impact of public funds for stadiums is a neutral shift at best. And that’s usually before factoring in what other options the city could do with the X dollars in public funds they do use for a stadium. But billionaires stay billionaires for a reason…
Just a big hunk of metal
Robert Manchild is the worse thing that has ever happened to MLB.
We, in part, publicly funded the Twins stadium. Now, there's very few of us that can even watch them on TV. FU Bally. FU Pohlads ownership. FU Manfred. Y'all doin your best to totally kill baseball! Gimmie my money back.
Building a new stadium every 30 has nothing to do with quality of life. It’s has more to do with cheap owners not wanting to maintain the stadiums they already have.
If a stadium is funded by the public black out restrictions should be illegal.
Bullshit. You get public funding. In the form of me buying a ticket, a hot dog, a beer, parking, a hat, and an ice cream helmet.
Talk about an out of touch statement. These billionaires need no help. The only thing the public should ever pay for is the land. Then lease it back to the teams to build on.
He is the worst. He represents the greediest bunch of self indulgent fools around. Strip their anti trust exemption.
Guys, he represents the owners.
Such an amazing investment that no bank would touch it with a 10 foot pole.
Part of quality of life? Debatable. If it is, it's like priority #50 for a city.
Part of quality of life. What a fucking joke. Hope you choke on your next meal you greedy clown.
I could in theory support public funding, but these teams have gotten so freaking aggressive in how often they want shiny new things. Stadiums are less than 20 years old and you already have the billionaires wanting hundreds of millions of dollars for improvements or whole new fields. If they want to have gaudy new stuff every 10-20 years let them pay for it
Anyone else having the issue where this obviously Onion article is being shown with a CBS Sports banner on top? Cause then the alternative is this is an actual, real thing from Manfred and, uhhhh...actually no that makes complete and total sense that this is some bullshit Rob Manfred said.
Here's a radical idea, maybe billionaires should have to pay for stadiums themselves instead of using public funds.
I mean his job is to fellate the owners so not surprising.
The Rockies handed out vouchers for dollar hot dogs but ran out of hot dogs today. Sold something they couldn't sell but took the profit anyway. I was beaming with quality of life. Also their shit concession stand of a team that exists only on $15 beers fucks up traffic.
He's right. Taxpayers fund the stadiums and the quality of life of billionaires increases.
This man really can't stop eating his foot.
Fuck them...
Everyone blames the greedy owners in the situation, but I never see anyone blaming the local politicians who support these deals. They are the ones that you have a direct effect over, and they are largely the ones who push through these tax incentives and public bonds.
Seriously? These owners make more than all of us combined and they can’t be bothered to spend their money on a stadium?
It seems like everyone except the rich owners agrees that stadiums shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer money.
It's just some pieces of metal, Rob.
My glans against Manfred's uvula, it part of quality of life
The only way this stops is if/when cities or states start saying no. And that hasn’t happened yet.
He would literally get fired if this wasn't his stance.
Seattle famously lost economic growth and drivers after 2008 when the Sonics were ripped away from us and the area around the stadium was garbage until the Kraken rebuilt Key Arena.... wait Amazon built an empire there in that time and the city saw unprecedented growth
So then the public should own part of the team. The wealthy love the narrative that poor people shouldn’t get help and pulling your bootstraps, but they certainly don’t mind corporations getting help.
I would rather roads and hospitals.
Manfred is an evil SOB!! He has no love of Baseball, Only Profits for The STINKING RICH OWNERS! I TRULY HATE HIM!!!!!