If governments owned the sports teams, salaries would go through the roof. What politician would be willing to trade a superstar over a salary dispute? The Oilers just traded Doug Weight this weekend, because they can’t afford his price. Right now, this is highly unpopular and people are screaming over it. If a politician ran the team, he’d cave and sign him.
Oh, and when Edmonton Renovated the Skyreach center to add skyboxes, it did indeed lower the price of the cheapest seats.
To Elvis and adam yax: One of the reasons Alex Rodriguez went to Texas is because Texas has no state income tax. So, he pays no tax at all for all his home games, plus those games he plays in other states without income tax.
As for public ownership, the Green Bay Packers, Inc., is a publicly-owned, non-profit corporation.
Three Rivers was only built in 1969…AND it hadn’t even been fully paid for yet!
Dodger Stadium opened in April, 1962. Due to the recent frenzy of ballpark construction, there are now only three major-league ballparks older than that:
Fenway Park - 1912
Wrigley Field - 1916
Yankee Stadium - 1923
39 years is a pretty big gap between #3 and #4.
#5 is Shea, opened in 1964. A photo of the model for the proposed new Mets stadium can be found here. It would have a retractable roof and, for the first time anywhere, the field itself would be retractable. This would allow them to have certain events the day before a ball game without damaging the grass.
It’s estimated the stadium would cost $500,000,000, financed at least partially with public funds.
A question.
Why in Sam Hell does NY need a stadium with a retractable roof???
I can understand Seattle and Florida needing one(lots of rain year round) and Canada and, of course, Houston(where the weather is always unbearable). But why NY??? Are rainouts a big problem in the big apple? Worth the extra millions that a retractable roof costs?