NFL bandits

So the owners have approved a new deal to end the NFL walkout. The players are next.

Guess who doesn’t get to vote? The governors, mayors, legislators, city council members and above all taxpayers who are subsidizing the NFL to the tune of hundreds of millions every year.

States and cities like Pennsylvania and Philadelphia that have raised taxes and cut services are still paying for new stadiums they built these hugely-profitable franchises when owners whined and stamped their feet and threatened to move if they didn’t get new sports palaces with luxury boxes and premium seating they could charge top dollars for.

You can’t find a serious economist who believes government spending on sports venues pays for itself in new tax revenue. These were “investments” that panicked politicians made so they wouldn’t be tagged as the ones who let their beloved franchises get away.

And even if you could make a case that it’s worth some city money to keep a civic asset like the Eagles from moving the LA, it certainly makes no sense on a national scale for taxpayers to pay billions to lucrative, privately-owned sports franchises. It’s literally working people subsidizing millionaires.

So the owners and players get to keep the money we’re still paying for their new stadiums, and they argue over how to split $9 billion – that’s nine billion dollars in revenue.

It’s stomach-turning.