No Sporting Chance

Sports and Western New York. They go hand and hand like cold weather and snow. Or two lovers.

And so we are always being pressured by the NFL to build a new stadium for the Bills. If we don't, NFL might mean “Not For Long” because the Bills could be moved to another city that promises to build a new stadium and hopefully generate more profits for the team owners.

Note that – profits for the team owners, Not the community that is shelling out millions of dollars to build the grand temple of distraction. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that if only the Bills would have won a Super Bowl then Buffalo would be so much more better off financially.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that myth, I could retire. Now. (Believe me, I want to.)

In any event – This community, if not the whole country – has a fixation on sports as some kind of savior. An economic savior at that. Even Hamburg is seriously talking about building a sports complex. (Just like the under used facility that Amherst has.)

Hamburg is planning on a public-private partnership to build this economic leach. Let's understand what a public-private partnership is. The public fronts the money for the project – most of it – and the private corporation receives all the profits. It's a losing proposition to start with.

From a capitalist point of view, if I am asked to put up money for a project and have no chance of reaping a profit, I should stay away from it. Yet Hamburg is looking into losing its money in just this manner. And not even to an American company. They are looking at a Canadian company. (I can see the red blooded patriots going ape-$#!+ over that one when one of them finally picks up a newspaper and actually reads it. I doubt any of the talk shows are going to mention it.)

But wait – we will be told – the profits will come in the form of higher tax revenues from restaurants and the jobs that are created.

First of all: The construction jobs won't be created. The firms already exist and rarely do they add workers.

Second: When the jobs in the sports complex and stadium are finally created, they will mostly be part time, minimum wage, and seasonal. Hardly anything to celebrate.

Let's hypothesize that a new stadium is built for the Bills, wherever it may go, (It's not going in Buffalo. There's no room and the eminent domain work would be a nightmare.) Again, it will be seasonal – August through January.

Unless they build a domed stadium. And who is going to use it when the Bills aren't playing? Buffalo lost its pro-basketball team decades ago (still a sore point with some). The Sabres have the downtown arena. (Even that sits empty for how much of the year?) The Bisons have Coca-Cola Field. (That sits unused how much of the year? It isn't even used for summer concerts.) So, a domed stadium is going to add how much to the cost and see no more use than the current stadium?

So, here we are again. Wasting money on sports projects that do nothing economically for the community.

We'd be better putting that money into education so that our children can have a better chance of makin git in the future.

But that's not as entertaining.