A Great Investment

As a resident of Hamilton County, Ohio, I remember when the stadium tax was approved and subsequently voted on by the residents.

The tax was sold on the pretense of economic growth ( or reduction if not approved ).

I knew that was all crap. If professional sports teams provided that much economic activity to the area, the existing tax structure would support the construction. For instance, let's say a sports team brings in 100 million a year in economic activity to an area. Inside the city of Cincinnati 100 million translates to 2.1 million dollars in city income tax revenue.

Now there are some issues around economic multipliers, the amount of revenue generated by money people earned from the activity and respent but I would offer that this money simply offsets the money that would have been spent in the city without a pro team.

With that said, I knew that it made no economic sense to approve nearly a billion dollars in taxes to essentially give to pro teams.

However, where it makes sense is the public persona of having said pro teams in your city. I use the example of a Monday night game. During that game the Goodyear, blimp comes to town, and they show magnificent skyline shots of your city. It would cost you millions to buy that kind of ad time.

But that assumes your teams is going to be on prime time television; which gets me to the point of this post.

The approval of the stadium tax was a monumental waste of resources. All that occurred when the citizens passed this test is we simply put a billion dollars in owners pockets. You know you just got ripped off when the Commissioner that was out front on the deal takes a job with the Bengals.

Our teams are a laughing stock and portray the city as a joke (see Colin Cowherd). Instead of Monday night football shots, we get mugshot photos of athletes. Our baseball team hasn't been on prime time TV in how long? You'd probably be hard pressed to find a person outside of Cincinnati be able to name a Red.

Our city does not deserve this. We paid for first class and we're getting half ass.

I understand the Red's dilemma. They are locked into big contracts with non performers. But that money is gone, and it doesn't give the Red's one more win.

I won't spend one more minute watching Adam Dunn leave another guy in scoring position and I sure as hell will never....never...never vote for another increase in taxes for anything.