New Stadiums are Costing Americans More Than Just Money, They Are Costing Them Their Livelyhood

             Sorry for missing a few days on the blog but I've started a new job that has taken over my time lately and the change from little to no work to 9-5 work took its toll on me the last few days. But I am back and will try to keep up as much as possible. Today I will talk about an article my father had forwarded to me from the Wall Street Journal Online. This article was published on 7/12/2011 and is titled Stadium's Costly Legacy Throws Taxpayers for a Loss written by Reed Albergotti Cameron McWhirter. Here is the link for the article if you are interested in reading it, I highly recommend you do so, it is a great read. http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704461304576216330349497852-lMyQjAxMTAxMDEwMjExNDIyWj.html

              The article's focus is on how the city of Cincinnati is in deep, deep trouble financially due to the construction of two major sports stadiums, the Bengals' Paul Brown Stadium and the Reds' Great American Ballpark. The major issue here is how the county that Cincinnati is in, Hamilton County shouldered the financial load to build the stadiums. WSJ stated that of the 23 National Football League stadiums built or renovated between 1992 and 2010, only two involved a single county government willing to shoulder the debt burden necessary to build costly new facilities. The combined estimation of construction for the two stadiums was originally $540 million, but has soared well above that estimation after completion. Paul Brown Stadium was supposed to be around $280 million to complete but instead has been estimated that the final cost was closer to $454 million according to Hamilton County (the Bengals estimate it around $350 million). The worst of all that is that according to a Harvard University professor, the stadium has cost local taxpayers close to $555 million.

Paul Brown Stadium on Game Day (Espn.com)

               Cincinnati was already in a tough place before the construction of these massive stadiums as 1 in 7 people in Hamilton County live under the poverty line. Over the time they agreed to finance the stadiums, Hamilton County has accumulated over $1 billion in debt. Over the last few years Paul Brown Stadium has accounted for 11% and 16% of the county's budget.

             The Reds have a very good complaint here though, according to most statisticians, they have in fact not gone over budget and are not in financial issues at the moment. They claim they are self sufficient and will be for as long as they can tell.


Great American Ballpark on Game Night (buymeposters.com)

              These kinds of errors are just the worst blunders and are partial reasons why our economy is in such dire straits as it is. The Bengals were extremely selfish, claiming relocation without construction of a new stadium and really forced Hamilton County's hand in pushing forward this project. These new stadiums not only cost Americans money, they cost them the chance for a normal life.