The Associated Press reported — erroneously, it turns out — that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro “remains steadfast” that there will be no state money available to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles to build new stadiums when their current leases expire.
What a shame. Both for The AP’s error and that the governor didn’t flat out say what he originally was reported to have said.
But Shapiro apparently did say, as the wire service also initially reported, that “he would continue talking with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and the Rooney family in Pittsburgh about what — if anything — the NFL teams need when it comes to the state of their stadiums,” The AP also reports.
Uh-oh.
Shapiro says he is “very worried about the [commonwealth’s] overall economic situation given … federal [budget] cuts.”
“You want to balance investing in tourism, investing in sports, investing in great arenas and facilities, with making sure that you’re also investing those dollars in things that Pennsylvanians need most.”
Talk about false choices. Stadium financing has no place in balancing this equation.
It certainly sounds as if the governor is prepared to funnel state taxpayer dollars to the NFL’s barons of sport to fund major upgrades to their mostly taxpayer-funded playgrounds. Or even brand-spankin’ new stadiums.
If so, why?
“I will tell you that we want to make sure the Steelers, we want to make sure the Eagles, and all of our pro teams have outstanding places to play,” he said. “That are welcoming for fans. That generate revenue,” the governor told The AP.
But underwriting such things certainly is not the responsibility of taxpayers.
“We’re going to continue to dialogue with them about what they need and what’s possible,” Shapiro says.
Sorry, but “what they need and what’s possible” should no longer be up to taxpayers. What these sports franchises “need,” they should pay for. What’s “possible” should not be predicated on how much they can shake out of taxpayers’ pockets.
The Steelers and Eagles pay their players multiple millions of dollars. The teams rake in the same. And the Steelers were handed – handed, mind you – development rights to the 25 acres between Acrisure Stadium and PNC Park.
If anything, these teams should be entering into negotiations with their government benefactors to see how they can take over the stadiums in their own right and begin to pay property taxes on them, to boot.
If they want new stadiums, they can, and should, pay for them. If they want upgrades to their existing stadiums, they can, and should, pay for them.
Contrary to the force-fed spin from taxpayer-financed sports stadium pushers, pimps and trollops, sports stadiums are not a “public good.” What they are is corporate wealthfare. And now is the time to stop it, no matter if it’s a demand for new stadiums or beefing up older ones.
The only skin the public should have in sports stadiums is the money fans put forth to attend sporting and other events there through ticket and concessions purchases.
The days of taxpayers being professional sports franchises’ sugar daddies and mommies, both a moral and an economic abomination, must end.
And Gov. Shapiro should know better.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
