“Taking from the Poor, Giving to the Rich”
Rhetorical Analysis on Stadium Financing
Is it ok to take money from the low and middle class and give it to the rich? How about we pay for stadiums, arenas, and ballparks just to receive a zero percent return of revenue. Can we just forget the fact that there are kids everywhere that needs education, or the fact that there are millions of hospital patients that need assistance? These are the exact outcomes of these public financed stadiums for our professional teams that we’ve grown to love so much even though all they do is take from us without giving back. Famous talk show host, John Oliver, of “Last Week Tonight” argues the idea that team owners should be responsible for funding the necessary
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costs for new stadiums and/or new stadium renovations. Oliver establishes his credibility by explaining the effects on American people as a community and society using credible sources, factual statistics, and his ability to appeal to one’s logical state and emotional connection to the subject. In his show, Oliver demonstrates a serious tone throughout to convince the audience of the problem at hand, public financing of stadiums, while also using his comedic expertise to deliver the message in a way that is interesting, exciting, and engaging to the audience. Oliver begins his show by first persuading the audience in believing that most of what taxpayers pay for, as far as stadiums and arenas go, are usually unnecessary costs i.e. real paintings by world renowned artist in Arlington, swimming pools looking over the football field in Seattle, and a fish tank that circles the wall of the ball park in Miami. He then follows by criticizing team owners to illustrate how unethical and greedy they are by referring back to a clip of an interview involving the owner of the Miami Marlins, David Samson. In the interview, Samson, after answering yes to all the questions involving the royalties he receives, says “that’s the whole object of this, is to get more revenue.” He also bashes the Detroit Red Wings owner, Mike Ilitch, when the city is forced to approve a new $444 million hockey arena which two-thirds will be paid for with taxpayers’ money, the only problem is Mike Ilitch, also the owner of Little Caesars Pizza chain, is worth an astonishing estimate of $5.1 billion. By showcasing these things, Oliver educates the audience on where their money as taxpayers is really going and what exactly it is being used for. He also convinces the audience that the system works in favor for those in higher positions which creates room for the question; why are we, as taxpayers, paying for stadiums that team owners have to financial stability to afford. Along with his outbreak on team owners and repetition of unnecessariness within these stadiums, Oliver also appeals to the audiences’ logistics by stating that funding for schools and poverty appears to be less important than a professional team being able to have a new stadium every x amount of years.
He then voices that teams threaten their cities and fans by arranging a relocation as an effect of them not receiving a new stadium. Not only do they threaten their cities, teams also promise that new stadiums could be an economical help for the city; creating new jobs, growth, and development, when in reality, they rarely revitalize the community in any way. Orlando Pardon, Miami business owner, is a perfect example of how stadiums and arenas can actually wound the community. Pardon states, “since the stadium opened, not only have the profits not risen, but on game days the regulars stay away; afraid of traffic. We don’t see any changes, you could even say it’s hurting us.” Team owners’ threats and promises create a reoccurring chain of events that uses taxpayers’ money for things such as new stadiums instead of schooling and roads, and can essentially harm businesses and decrease job opportunity within the surrounding
community. In relation to his logistic appeal, Oliver also establishes an emotional connection with the audience when he mentions the lack of jobs in hospitals and delayed payments for education facilities. Just to go deeper into that statement, there are situations where cities would rather finance stadiums over health and education. For example, Aaron Gordon of Vice Sports reported that the Senate of Nevada approved a $750 million for a Nevada stadium despite needing money for hospitals and schools. He then states that this would be the largest public contribution to any stadium in America which set a bar for stadiums and could essentially create a domino effect of team owners wanting stadiums that cost as much or more than the $750 million project. He ends he show with an inspirational, emotional talk with sports fans about not signing these deals with team owners and realizing without us there is no them. He encourages these individuals, which are a representation of the population, to fight back and stand up for what is right. He even goes back to his points expressing how unnecessary some stadiums can be and the negative effect these stadiums can have on our community and our pockets. He then singles out each team as a symbol of individual importance rather than being circled around a football, basketball or baseball team. In conclusion, Oliver’s argument was delivered in a comedic yet serious enough way that appealed to both peoples’ logical state and their emotions. His message was simple; don’t allow these billionaires to take money from you as taxpayers. If they threaten to leave let them go, because if everyone says no the money for new stadiums and renovations will have to come directly from the pockets of the owner.
On July 22, 1997 construction of Conseco Fieldhouse began. That day sparked the beginning of a very important addition to the Indianapolis area. A projected $175 million dollars would be required to complete this new, highly technalogical sports arena. As time and the building would progress the costs would rise to $183 million due to unseen soil contamination clean up on the site. Even with this rise in costs the construction continued and as we will show you this state-of-the-art sports and entertainment facility is worth all the costs. “Naming rights for the Pacer’s new home belong to Conseco, Inc. Headquartered in Carmel, Ind. Conseco (NYSE:CNC) is one of America’s leading sources for insurance, investment and lending projects. Through its subsidiaries and a nationwide network of insurance agents and financial dealers, Conseco provides solutions for both wealth protection and wealth creation to more than 12 million customers.” (cfhhistory) From the outside this simple redbrick, limestone and concrete building leads to a spacious, barrel-vault roof like most traditional fieldhouses. A glass roof at the top of Conseco Fieldhouse allows a beautiful view of the city skyline from within this structure. Inside the sponsor pavilions, concessions stands and general feeling follow Indiana’s rich basketball tradition. “Combine those elements with memorabilia and this building is the world’s first fully-themed professional sports and entertainment venue” according to the building’s design firm, Ellerbe Becket Sports and Entertainment. (Cfhhistory)
For the last 30 years, the New York Yankees have been a dominant force in Major League Baseball. Other teams do not make as much money as the New York Yankees therefore they have less capital to spend on big name players. In 1994, the Major Leagues put the luxury tax into place. The idea was to tax a club’s payroll if the total payroll exceeded a certain limit. However, the Yankees seem to exceed this limit every year. The Yankees are a notable team not only for their impressive history on the field, but also for their financial situation. The Yankees owner spends more on player salaries than any other franchise in baseball. “As of 2004, the team payroll is more than $182 million, which is $51 million more than the second-highest team, the Boston Red Sox, and more than the six lowest-payroll teams combined” (Wikipedia Encyclopedia”). The millions of people who are associated with baseball in this country, many of whom had only a vague idea of what was happening, are now asking themselves whether or not the game is being played fairly. Even though teams like the New York Yankees are able to assemble top-notch teams by ignoring the spending limit, a salary cap is necessary to maintain the equal competitive nature of major leag...
Introduction Baseball Saved Us was written by Ken Mochizuki, a novelist, journalist and an actor. He is a native of Seattle, Washington located in the United States. After the war between the United States and Japan during World War II, is parents were forced to move to a Minidoka internment camp located in Idaho. He got his inspiration to write Baseball Saved Us when he read a magazine article about an Issei (a first generation Japanese American) man who established a baseball diamond and formed a league within the camps. Dom Lee, the Illustrator of the book, is a native of Seoul, South Korea.
To explain the importance a sports team has on a city, a new avenue for future
If there’s one thing we dread in the summer more than the heat, it’s the afflicting sentiment that surrounds oneself when one is inhibited from experiencing the thrills of football for six long and gruesome months. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football is a part of many Americans’ Saturdays, but to fewer does it mean their lives. Recently coming under debate, many sporting fans and college athletes believe that players should be paid more than just tuition, room, board, and books. Two articles on this issue that bring up valid points worth discussing are Paul Marx’ “Athlete’s New Day” and Warren Hartenstine’s “College Athletes Should Not Be Paid.” From these articles I have found on the basis of logical,
Some of the most prolific franchises in sports, like the Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Colts of the National Football League, have moved to other cities breaking off their loyalty to the hometown fans. More important than the actual moves are the more frequent threatened moves. When teams “play the field” and explore the option of playing in other cities they are able to lure interested cities into giving them just about any royalty they want. New stadiums are only the beginning. The willingness to threaten departure has secured for teams a variety of land deals, lower taxes, more revenues from parking and concessions, control of stadium operations, guaranteed ticket sales, renovation of stadiums with luxury seating, control over neighborhoods and transportation systems, and that’s only the beginning of the list.
In 2004, over 40 schools brought in more than $10 million, with 10 of them bringing in over $30 million. Several athletes around the nation are worth more than $1 million to their school (Brown). Both of these statistics are proof that while these athletes are essential to their schools, they are still kept out of the revenue. Even though these universities won’t pay their players, the schools still have no problem giving their coaches some money. In 40 U.S. states, the head coach of the basketball or football program is the highest-paid public official (Edelman).
There is a nationwide trend in which taxpayers are asked to pay for new stadiums these stadiums benefit a single corporation. A sport construction boom has started, these new stadiums cost a minimum of $200 million to build, but usually cost much more. New stadiums have been built, or are underway, in New York, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Seattle, Tampa, Washington DC, St. Louis, Jacksonville, and Oakland. This competitive trend replaces old stadiums with high tech flashy stadiums used exclusively for one sport. These stadiums are unnecessary, and not cost efficient. Most of the time new stadiums are not used for multi-purposes, they bring in money exclusively for the professional league and not ...
...port. As it now stands, they are as good as disenfranchised- a vast number of the taxpaying public who will never set foot inside these stadiums and arenas” (as cited in Jarvie, 2012).
The money given to the athletes could be used for more probable causes. Recently Alex Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers signed a contract for 252 million dollars over a span of 10 years. This is enough money to feed the nation's poor for a year or to provide a lot more housing and shelters for the homeless. Others could benefit from the millions being wasted on these athletes. Not because the players don’t earn the money but because it could just be better spent on more important issues in our communities.
...e else wrote. But most importantly, they feel that all that money they get could be put to better use by paying the military more, paying our teachers more, and by paying our public services more. The average MLB player makes 1.5 million (Bliss), now cut that down to 100 thousand. Now put the 1.4 million into schools funding and increase the teachers pay, put it into soldiers pay, and put it into the public services pay. So what does this do? Now suddenly you have more teachers to help the children prepare for their bright future, more people wanting to join the military, more police officers to keep the cities safer, and more firefighters to help stop more fires, whether they’re in the woods or in the town.Athletes still make enough money to live on and then some and the economy will start to recover much faster. It wouldn’t be long until America was really America.
Over the years there have been many new state of the art sports stadiums that have been built in the United States. In fact from 1993 until 2013 there were 101 new sports facilities built on American soil, most notably AT&T Stadium (formally known as Cowboy Stadium) home to the Dallas Cowboys in 2009. Owner of the Cowboys and AT&T Stadium, multi-billionaire Jerry Jones set a new precedent in regards to sporting facilities but the one thing that AT&T stadium has in common with almost all of the other sporting facilities built over the past 20 years, is that they all received direct public funding. The typical justification for a large public investment to build a stadium for an already wealthy sports owner has to do with creating jobs or growing the local economy. Although the opening of new sporting facilities provides many opportunities, according to Aaron Gordon, not only are most of the jobs created by stadium-building projects are either temporary, low-paying, or out-of-state contracting jobs none of which contribute greatly to the local economy and are known as poor public investments. The research intends to explore if publicly funded sporting facilities are a poor use of the millions of dollars drawn out from the public.
Sports are no longer about passion and competition; these were lost a while ago. All we have left is a structure in which corporations dominate our favorite pastimes. The games are less about enjoyment, and more about increasing the value of “property”. We live in a society in which the entirety of jerseys, stadiums, and even bodies are owned and advertised by people looking to make a quick buck. The question we should be asking is how did we get here?
Almost every time the topic of professional athletes salaries is brought up the phrase “Those greedy football players are earning in a year more than what teachers and nurses will make in their entire lives,” makes an appearance. The mathematics behind this are correct; however the point is invalid. People think that the athletes are taking money away from the nurses, teachers and firefighters that, in their opinion, the nurses and firefighters work harder than the athletes that are getting paid such immense sums of cash. “The fact is, Steven Gerrard could take a 90% pay cut tomorrow and no nurse anywhere is going to benefit from it.” (Ator 5). On the contrary, the Liverpool star would would be paying the Government much less in income taxes. In any sport, if the player wages go down the owners are the only ones that are going to benefit. The only thing that will happen is that the the billionaire owners will have more money to spend on their yachts, while the average fan will see no change in prices (5). Fans are the ones who are willing to pay all of their money to see their favorite team play, buy over-priced beer, food, and jerseys (Mueller 21). All of the fans money is not going to was...
Benjamin Okner looked over data on 20 public owned baseball and / or football stadiums for the 1970-71 seasons. He figured out that when about three-quarters of stadium costs that are for debt are ignored, most stadiums earn enough revenue for the city to cover the variable costs and non-debt-related fixed costs. But when he included interest and amortizing principle, stadium revenues only cover 70% of stadium costs. Okner adds that publicly-owned stadiums do not collect property taxes, so when he included his estimate of those taxes, he figured out that the average stadium only covers 60% of total costs (Baade & Dye, 1988, p. 265-6). The beneficiaries from stadium development are the franchise owners and the stadium developers. Those dislodged from their homes are the losers. I am studying the benefits of sports stadiums in their host cities, because I want to find out whether people use stadium subsidies in the best possible way in order to help my readers understand whether that money is better used elsewhere. An analysis of stadium developments requires an examination of past stadium data, job creation in the construction industry, and studies using recent data