Right now pro sports teams from all over Florida are seeking tens of millions of state tax dollars, which they will probably get.
For taxpayers, this is a bad deal.
That's not my opinion. It's the conclusion of a new legislative report that found for every $1 taxpayers spend on stadiums and arenas, they get back a lousy 30 cents.
It's like investing 1,000 bucks in the stock market and getting back $300. It's a loser.
Yet Florida politicians keep doing this deal again and again.
No wonder teams from Orlando to Miami are lined up. Odds are, they will make out like bandits.
Again, that's not my opinion. That's what the numbers show from another recent report -- a Forbes listing of the increasing value of NBA franchises.
The Orlando Magic franchise checked in at $875 million, a whopping 900 percent increase over the $85 million Rich DeVos paid for the team in 1991.
So to recap: Taxpayers lost money building the Magic a new arena. Yet, thanks in part to that building, the value of the Magic's portfolio keeps increasing. (More than $50 million last year alone.)
It is time to cut taxpayers in on the action.
Why? Because the taxpayers are the investors. And investors are supposed to get paid off.
Now, before we go too far down this road, I know that sports are about more than just money. They provide entertainment, community pride and good exposure.
I get all that. I want all that. I just also want taxpayers to get a piece of the profits they help create.
So why don't we? Because professional sports defy all basic laws of business, free markets and common sense.
NBA teams, for instance, have such unsustainable business models -- whether it's spending $20 million a year for LeBron James to play or $20 million for Gilbert Arenas not to play -- that they can't afford to build their own arenas.
If you ran a business and found that your payroll was so big that you couldn't pay your mortgage, you'd cut back your payroll.
Not the NBA. There, they just ask for a handout and the politicians usually deliver -- to teams that are now worth an average of $1.1 billion.
How twisted is that?
In Orlando, taxpayers paid for more than 80 percent of the $480 million arena the team demanded. Yet the taxpayers' share in the team's value is 0 percent.
Teams with current applications for state money include the Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins and Orlando's new Major League Soccer franchise, the Lions.
I've said before that, in a world of whacked-out sports deals, the Lions' deal is probably the best one Florida has seen. For about half the cost of a $110 million stadium, central Florida is getting an entirely new pro sports franchise. (Compared to $400 million just to keep the Magic happy and here.)
Still, any team that gets public assistance should consider the public partial owners.
And spare me the malarkey about teams being mere tenants in public buildings. The only reason these facilities were built was because teams asked for them.
Occasionally, the politicians say no. We saw that two years ago when legislators rebuffed a request from Daytona International Speedway for an incentive package worth nearly $100 million. And do you know what happened? The track renovated anyway ... and this year is back, asking for money again.
University of Central Florida economist Mark Soskin notes that the speedway at least brings people to the state. Most pro sports don't even do that, which is why Soskin said he doubted taxpayers get back even the 30 percent cited by the Legislature.
"Pro sports franchises just move spending around rather than bring new spending," Soskin said. " And that spending turns into salaries and billionaire owner profits that are disproportionately sucked outside the state."
I don't have any beef with people getting rich. But when taxpayers are the ones making it happen, they deserve to get cut in on the action.
If you don't want to cut in the public, fine. Then build your own darn stadium.
Sports on 01/28/2015