Preakness leaving Pimlico?

[Pinecone]

Well why not.....if the taxpayers can foot the bill for something that gets used 8 times a year why not force the taxpayers to toss money at something that gets used once a year.......

M&T Stadium is used a lot more than 8 times per year.

It is not only used for football.

 

[Pinecone]

Well yeah, it is. I prefer the other form of jousting where they are trying to knock each other off of a horse with a blunted lance. THAT is one helluva show.

Heck, make a REAL sport, use pointed lances.

 

[LoneRanger]

M&T Stadium is used a lot more than 8 times per year.

It is not only used for football.

Even if it is used twice that.....no taxpayer money should have been used to build it.........

 

[Pinecone]

More than that.

But how much was actual taxpayer money and how much was bond issue, backed by city money?

 

[LoneRanger]

More than that.

But how much was actual taxpayer money and how much was bond issue, backed by city money?

Here is a Washington Times article from last fall. It indicates that taxpayers funded 94% of the cost to build M&T bank stadium.......seems to me the wrong name is on the door.......

 

[rseymorejr]

Here is a Washington Times article from last fall. It indicates that taxpayers funded 94% of the cost to build M&T bank stadium.......seems to me the wrong name is on the door.......

So, the taxpayers, for the most part, built a workplace (for a millionaire) where other millionaires come to work a couple of times a year. All so those millionaires can charge ridiculous prices, on everything from beer to the seats, to the people that actually paid for it.
Sounds about right.

 

[Schipperke]

Laurel Park was nice in the 80's. Belonged to the Turf Club. My father would hang with Mandel sometimes. They featured a stakes race each year, The International on turf.

 

[Cruacious]

So, the taxpayers, for the most part, built a workplace (for a millionaire) where other millionaires come to work a couple of times a year. All so those millionaires can charge ridiculous prices, on everything from beer to the seats, to the people that actually paid for it.
Sounds about right.

And this surprises you how? This is SOP for both parties in order to create economic action (according to them). I seriously doubt their argument holds any real weight IMO.

 

[traveller]

More than that.

But how much was actual taxpayer money and how much was bond issue, backed by city money?

Very little direct taxpayer money.

What I could find was:

$220 million in state revenue bonds
$24 million in private funding

The bonds are paid back by the stadium authority through a tax on gate receipts as well as a direct annual contribution from the Ravens. There have been years the stadium has been cash negative and there have been other years it has been cash positive for the authority. While the money goes through a public entitity, to say that the 220mil were 'public' money is a bit disingenuous. The debt service and operating expenses for the stadiums comes out of stadium revenue, last year the Ravens wrote a check of $28 million to the authority, 10mil for operating expenses, 18mil for non-op expenses.

There are of course some indirect public contributions:

- revenue bonds are tax exempt, so arguably the owners of those bonds would have paid income tax on the interest otherwise. Very unlikely that that is the case, they would have just bought other municipal bonds, to a bond-fund investor it makes no difference whether he funds Ravens Stadium or a sewer plant in Omaha.
- Road and light-rail infrastructure. The light-rail would have been built anyway and interstate 395 wasn't built for the ballparks. Hard to allocate any more than the cost for the light-rail station and maybe some extra lanes on MLK blvd.