I can honestly say that I've never been to a professional sporting event in my life, except for car races. I'm not a fan of anything played with a ball or a stick.
It's frustrating to see stadiums being subsidized with tax dollars, but the stadiums usually return more than their cost in additional business to the community. The presence of major league teams also helps burnish a city's image, and helps attract businesses.
Would I rather it not be done? Sure. But when other cities are doing it, it's almost a necessity.
But what about when you build a stadium and 2-3 years later the team wants to declare bankrupty, fold, and re-locate to a new market?
Stadiums are worthless to the "tax base" without a team in them.
Case in point: When the coyotes were having their troubles, or when other pro sports have their strikes and lockouts, people don't go to the businesses near the stadiums because there's no games to watch. Those businesses are put into financial troubles, because they invested in the team being reliable. When pro sports aren't a reliable draw due to their own behaviors (strikes, lockouts, moving away from a market) they hurt the businesses and "tax base" that counted on them being a part of the community for decades to come.
There's a huge shopping complex over by the cardinals/coyotes stadium complex, called Westgate. Westgate is still a ghost town. Lots of unrented shops. Not much going on at the restaurant scene there on friday/saturday unless there are games at the stadiums. Big empty hotels, unless there are games.
If those teams fold and the stadiums sit empty, then Westgate will fold too. Good bye, tax base.
I'm glad the NHL was compelled by civil court procedings to keep the coyotes in town and operating.
I'm just so sick of these sports corps browbeating cities and states into giving them billion dollar stadiums on the backs of taxpayers. And this can't be fixed at the municipal or state level, because the teams will just pick up and move from a hostile state.
I almost think a Federal legal intervention is needed, but I hate going Big Brother on private business typically. Something that prohibits preferential tax packages or infrastructure bribery being used as leverage to get sports teams into cities.