American Public Has Spent More Than $7 Billion On NFL Stadiums In Last 20 Years

The San Diego Chargers unveiled their proposal for a new downtown stadium on Wednesday and, surprise, they are asking for a significant chunk of cash from taxpayers.

The Bolts want the city to increase hotel tax rates to facilitate a $350 million investment from the public. While this proposal isn’t anywhere close to the worst we’ve seen from NFL teams over the past few decades, it continues a trend of franchises taking lots of public money to finance stadiums. As Dieter Kurtenbach points out, American taxpayers have spent a whopping $7 billion on renovating or building NFL stadiums in the past 20 years.

Since 1996, NFL teams have fleeced taxpayers for roughly $7.01 billion of the nearly $15.35 billion needed to construct or renovate stadiums 33 times. Some of those arenas have actually been built and needed renovation over the time, and the public has been asked to help in both instances.

-The Cincinnati Bengals took $424 million in public money in 2000, then $7 million in 2015 as part of a $10 million upgrade.

-The Buffalo Bills did a $63 million renovation of Ralph Wilson Stadium in 1999, using only public money, then did a $271 million renovation in 2012, using $227 million in public funds.

-The Carolina Panthers built Bank of America Stadium (then known as Ericsson Stadium) for $248 million in 1996, with $54 million of that coming via public funding. In 2013, the franchise started a $250 million renovation project and got $87 million of that from the public.

-In one of the worst examples, St. Louis still has about $144 million in debt to pay off of the St. Louis Los Angeles Rams’ former stadium. The city doesn’t even have a team anymore and must pay off the rest of the cost of the Edward Jones Dome without any help from the team.

While we could debate the merits of the public paying a portion of stadiums in American cities for days, it’s clear that the public is being asked to shoulder an enormous burden each time an NFL franchise wants to build or upgrade its facility.

For many, the problem isn’t just that NFL teams ask for public support when constructing an arena, it’s the way they go about things. In almost every case, franchises use the threat of moving to pressure cities and citizens to pony up the cash. In some circles we call that “extortion,” in the NFL it’s referred to as “smart business.”

Time will tell as to whether or not the Chargers get their new downtown palace, but if they do the citizens of “America’s Finest City” will be forced to submit a very large check to make it happen.