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February 3, 2012
Super Bowl Lands on Taxpayers’ Backs as Stadium Deal Turns Sour
Bloomberg Businessweek
by Aaron Kuriloff and Darrell Preston
Hosting the Super Bowl has to be a civic moneymaker, right? Guess again.
While Super Bowl fans are riding zip lines through downtown Indianapolis this week in the runup to the National Football League’s championship game, taxpayers are digging deeper in their pockets to pay for the stadium where the game will be played.
The $720 million Lucas Oil Stadium, where the New York Giants meet the New England Patriots on Feb. 5, has prompted local officials to raise hotel, restaurant and rental car taxes, and make other payments on top of about $43 million in unexpected financing costs related to their sports and convention facilities.
“They said, ‘We’re going to have one great fantastic party with an unbelievable advertisement for Indianapolis and it isn’t going to cost taxpayers a dime,’” said Pat Andrews, 60, a blogger and community activist who ran unsuccessfully for City Council last year. “Well, baloney.”
Posted by eric at February 3, 2012 12:57 PM