The average player in most professional sports makes much more money than the average doctor or lawyer. The price of a ticket to a game nowadays can top $100 before you buy that $10 hot dog. Yet, we, the public, subsidize the 132 major U.S. pro sports franchises about $2 billion a year. The subsidies come in a variety of ways: free rent for a stadium or arena, free upgrades of scoreboards—which cost up to $30 million— taxes on alcoholic drinks and tobacco, and other benefits.
We do this even in cities like Detroit that are just about broke. Today, professional teams in many cities,including Milwaukee, Cleveland, Miami, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Oakland and St. Louis, have their hands out for more money from the public. This makes absolutely no sense. Sure, the teams will trot out 'studies' claiming vast economic benefits to the cities, but, these cities do not get enough money from these teams to pay their pensions, fix their streets, improve their schools, etc. Insanity? I'd say so.
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