Great, do publicly funded sports stadiums next.
Sports are cool.
Put a stadium bond or tax or whatever on the ballot where I live and I’ll vote for it every time.
Everything doesn’t have to make financial sense.
I enjoy publicly funded museums. I hang out in publicly funded parks. I check books out of publicly funded libraries. None of these are used universally by all of the taxpayers whose money is used to fund them, but I don't feel guilty for that—I pay for things that they use that I don't use. That's part of the deal.
Whether sports need public funding is a good question that's worth exploring, but the mere fact that not everyone would enjoy them is not sufficient reason to not fund them.
College sports stadiums are often (usually?) used to fund the rest of the school. I don't see any particular reason why that model couldn't be adapted by government bodies if there's demand for publicly funded sports.
Or are you just basing it on the fact that traffic is thicker to and from the stadium on days where there are sporting events?
I’m basing this on going to games at these stadiums for 20 years, and never visiting the refrigerated warehouses afterwards. Everyone hops on the public transit if they live in the city or drives home to the suburbs afterwards.
Also the tickets cost extra.
Yes, actually they should be put to vote rather than be decided by the city council or whatever. I’ll obviously vote against, but let the majority decide.
OTOH, if they are funded by public money, I would expect my ticket to be free or close to free, selection via lottery is fine.
Why?
There are plenty of things that are partially subsidized by the government where private entities benefit. Or do you think all of those should be 100% free to you (which is a fine position to hold)?
Remember that while the stadium might be paid for publicly there are still many other costs which aren’t.
> Remember that while the stadium might be paid for publicly there are still many other costs which aren’t.
This is why I also said close to free. I’ll accept if Box seats and some other close seats are paid with, say at least 50-60% being free and distributed via lottery.
Ads, concessions, TV rights etc are more than enough to pay for operational costs. If not, I’d like to see the financials and we can discuss how to cover the deficit.
You don’t have to! You’re welcome to not pay your taxes. It’s a very powerful political act.
Why should anyone pay, via their taxes, to do anything that leads to profits for other people?
Because people realize they don’t always get their way and if something is voted into action that they personally dislike, that’s one of the downsides (and upsides) of letting other people vote.
In other words: Them’s the breaks.
And here I thought we were having a rational discussion.
Interestingly the rest of your argument is talking about voting and outcome, which is what my whole original point was above that these stadiums etc need to be voted and not decided by the city/whichever council that is influenced by the lobbyists.
Then you started talking about how if it passes you need free or cheap tickets — an argument I refuted quite easily tbh.
Yes, actually they should be put to vote rather than be decided by the city council or whatever. I’ll obviously vote against, but let the majority decide.
Fund your own stadium and maybe it will last longer than 20 years.
Stadiums that can only be used by a handful of local professional athletes? Hell no.
Stadiums that are part of local public infrastructure are a different story.
Facilities that can be rented in-full or in-part for a nominal fee by any resident in the community, and/or that during unused times are a center for community fitness? Hell yes.
Every city or ward in Japan has some kind of community center, and most of them have gyms and other fitness facilities, and overall they compare well to for-profit gyms -- which, admittedly, are absolute shit in Japan across the board, public, private, or otherwise[1]
[1] The average gym in Japan consists of approximately ten million treadmills and one squat rack, the latter having a reservation system, and being about as easy to book as an appointment with Elon Musk.