Fantasy Baseball Leagues: Let the Cities Compete!

[cpzilliacus]

NewGeorgraphy.com: Fantasy Baseball Leagues: Let the Cities Compete!

When a city bankrupts itself on the debt service of municipal bonds that were issued to keep some local pro team from bolting, residents and fans get the worst of both worlds. Losing teams and crippling interest payments are the signatures of bad deals in Cincinnati, Miami, Phoenix, and Cleveland, which collectively have taken on more than $1 billion in stadium debt to keep the Bengals, Marlins, Cardinals, and Browns in their loss columns.

Nor, nationally, is the debt burden more manageable. According to Bloomberg, American taxpayers are on the hook for $4 billion in stadium subsidies of the total $17 billion outstanding in bonds, which only mean jobs for ushers, investment bankers, parking lot attendants, and team owners.

The major-league losers are the municipalities. Hostage to the private fortunes of professional teams, these cities are saddled with billion dollar white-elephant stadiums that, in some cases, get used 20 days a year.

[triplemultiplex]

And if you don't build us a new stadium/arena, we're moving!

[cpzilliacus]

And if you don't build us a new stadium/arena, we're moving!

Yep.  The Dodgers might have been the first to make that demand (and then leave for a very nice new ballpark in Los Angeles), but they sure as Hades were not the last.

The one that still sticks in my craw (and probably always will) is Irsay's midnight ride, moving the Colts from Baltimore to Indiana, even though I was not an  especially good Colts fan (I favored the Washington Redskins back then).