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[Seattle Times] 15 years after moving Sonics, now it’s the Thunder asking for publicly funded arena
(www.seattletimes.com)
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The fact that it's coming from the state and not the municipality is the truly wild part of the Buffalo stadium deal. It's one thing if the money's coming from the area because, even if they're still atrocious "investments" when it comes to public funding, at least it's still the people that will gain whatever benefits there are to be had from having a stadium and NFL team. The vast majority of NY state taxes come from NYC, though, and I feel damn confident saying that at least 99% of NYC residents are literally never going to see any benefit in the slightest. That's next level fucked, IMO.
There's very little musicians left who can draw crowds big enough to fill these places up. Especially in poor smaller markets. Then the NFL stadiums which are custom built for 8 home games a year.
This is the number one issue for me.
How many days a year is the average football stadium in use? The answer is “not nearly enough for it to be worth public resources”
Lumen Field is probably the exception that I can think off the top of my head. Currently, four professional sports franchises call it home: Seahawks, Sounders, Reign, Sea Dragons.
It's also seen a decent amount of concert use too.
I used to have season tickets to the Seahawks and Sounders. I was at the stadium at least 28 weeks a year for over a decade.