Tax Dollars Subsidizing Protests

The right to protest and the right to freedom of expression are fundamental to any free people. Disagreeing with the protest content doesn’t annul the protester’s right. But should protests be subsidized by American tax dollars? Does a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry need to be subsidized by American tax dollars?

As the debate over “Trump v. NFL” rages, how many Americans know how much funding their State and local governments provide to the NFL, so that a family can spend several hundred dollars for the privilege of watching this tax subsidized event?

Taxpayers at the State and municipal level have built and currently maintain a number of the stadiums that the NFL utilizes. Most teams pay only a modest rent, and some, like the New Orleans Saints, pay no rent at all. Yet, all ticket sales, concessions and parking, revenue goes to the team owners. Additionally, the teams are not required to pay sales tax on those revenues in most States. A study by the Times-Picayune in 2016 reported the New Orleans Saint’s receives yearly around $165 million, from the taxpayers of Louisiana. In Texas, the value of the Dallas Cowboys is $4.2 billion. The new Cowboy’s stadium, now-AT&T Stadium, was the first billion-dollar football stadium in the United States. It received $444 million from taxpayers.

How much do you pay your NFL team? Wouldn’t that make the staff and players of the NFL government employees?

While the taxpayers unknowingly or foolishly subsidized the creation and operation of the NFL’s “product,” hoping for a few minimum wage jobs in their town, the NFL made, in a single year, over $7 billion in broadcasting rights alone, and no taxpayer received a single NFL tax credit.

Why should our State and local governments use YOUR money to fund this multi-billion dollar industry?
Perhaps we should have this discussion with our State and municipal representatives and demand they stop using your tax dollars to give handouts this billion dollar NFL industry.