Another Lesson In Why We Shouldn't Subsidize Sports Teams
The city of Glendale, Arizona (a 250,000 population suburb of Phoenix) continues to pour money into its NHL Hockey Team. The city has already spent $200 million on a stadium and is trying to find a legal way to hand $100 million to a private individual to buy the team and keep it in Glendale. But that is not even the end of it:
The Phoenix Coyotes are expected to stay in Glendale at least one more season, with or without a permanent owner, if the City Council pledges another $25 million to the National Hockey League.
The cash would go to offset team and arena losses.....
The pledge is the second financial promise in as many years.
Glendale this week paid $25 million it pledged the league a year ago in hopes of keeping the Coyotes in town until a permanent owner was found.
The city paid this year's $25 million from a utilities-repair account.
It's unclear whether that same fund would be used again and when the city would have to pay.
The NHL says the team and arena lost $37 million last season.
Just to give you a sense of scale, $25 million a year is larger than the city's fire department budget. It is over $100 for every man, woman, and child in the city, each of the last two years. Residents of the town are subsidizing a money-losing team mainly enjoyed, to the extent it has fans, by people outside of the city of Glendale. It is a $25 million city annual expenditure that mainly helps three or four bars and restaurants next to the facility. Just paying off those obviously politically connected retail owners a few hundred thousand each would be cheaper.
