caf
Some people did something.
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I think Deezus' larger point is that the government should not levy a consumption tax of any form to subsidize billionaires. Think about that..
Supply and demand.
The city owns the lease on the stadium. It's not like they have nothing. If they wanted the stadium to attract more events, they should have put a dome on it. The renovations that are being levied right now are a direct result of cost-cutting measures to make sure the initial levy passed. For fucks sakes, the original stadium didn't have escalators. Lerner added them out of his own pocket. It's not his fault the city didn't want to spend extra to make their product more attractive to other possible events.
I also don't understand why you are comparing MLB to NFL either. The Indians could move from Cleveland, and they would probably be successful if they wanted. The demand from the city isn't there. However, MLB revenue sharing is very lucrative and there is no financial reason for the Indians to move. Comparing the valuation and revenue of an NFL team to an MLB team is comparing apples and oranges.
Jimmy Haslam bought the Browns franchise for a billion dollars. The city can barely pass a levy for a fraction of that price... are you really suggesting the city put up a billion dollars for an investment that could, as Cuban put it "implode in ten years"? That sounds like a bad investment. The levy is extending the life of the stadium while hedging the risk of the NFL implosion because of that 'Billionare owner'.
It's a symbiotic relationship. The only place where a city owned franchise has really worked is Green Bay, and that's because their market was so small it forced the peoples of Green Bay to personally invest in 1950. The difference in value of an NFL franchise from 1950 to 2014 is astronomical. It is cost prohibitive for the city to financially back an NFL franchise today, and would be a terrible investment in terms of risk.
Unless you want to pass a billion dollar levy for fifty years, the NFL implodes, the value of the Browns goes to zero, and now the city is paying a billion dollars for absolutely nothing. I mean that sounds like a worse deal to me than a small investment in stadium upgrades.
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