Guest post by Andrew Murphy
Several years ago, when the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl, Gene posted about how the Packers were the only “socialist” National Football League team. They are owned by the fans of the team, not by a wealthy businessman.
Usually the only “socialism” in professional sports occurs when taxpayers subsidize the building of new stadiums– often because of threats by team owners to move their franchises to other cities unless they get public financing.
This Sunday the New England Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. Bob Kraft, the owner of the Patriots, is one of the few NFL owners who did not fleece taxpayers to build the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium. It was built with 100 percent private finance. In contrast the Seahawks’ owner extorted from Seattle’s taxpayers 64 percent of the cost of CenturyLink Field. Even worse, the city’s taxpayers are still paying for the Seahawks’ former stadium, the Kingdome, which still has a $180 million outstanding debt to pay off even though it was demolished in 2000.
NFL owners in general are all too happy to support socialism for the rich and make taxpayers pay for their playthings.
I think this is one issue on which honest people on the Right and on the Left can agree: socialism for NFL owners is bad. And financing a stadium should be the responsibility of the owner of the team, not taxpayers. For that reason, if no other, the Patriots are the team to root for on Sunday.
Gene adds: See Sunday’s “Pearls Before Swine.”
Gene adds: Patriots win 28-24. Conspiracy theorists take note: winning touchdown pass caught by Julian Edelman, who has Jewish ancestry, considers himself Jewish and was once spotted wearing an American-Israeli flag pin.