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May 21, 2007
New stadiums hit property rights
NY Newsday
By Raymond Keating
Just take a look at the plans for new stadiums being built for the Mets in Queens and the Yankees in the Bronx, both due to open in 2009.
The Mets facility resembles Ebbets Field, while the next Yankee Stadium will look much like the original Yankee Stadium before a major overhaul in 1974.
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But a little history shows that this is a manufactured character, as opposed to the organic kind that sprang from the original ballparks of yesteryear. Interestingly, the character of the early 20th-century stadiums largely emerged from private-sector necessity and creativity, as well as the restraint of government power.In contrast to the huge taxpayer stadium subsidies being doled out to the Mets and Yankees, along with handouts for a new Brooklyn basketball arena due to open for the Nets also in 2009, sports facilities were once private ventures. Team owners bought the land and privately funded their stadiums. What a novel idea!
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I appreciate new sports facilities as much as the next fan. But taxpayer subsidies for sports teams - as all independent economic studies have shown - amount to bad economics. Perhaps even worse, government taking property from one private owner and handing it over to another private entity not only mocks our Constitution but is simply immoral. Government is supposed to protect property, not steal it.
Posted by lumi at May 21, 2007 8:05 AM