The Carroll Standard

As Stadiums Vanish, Their Debt Lives On

The New York Times reports:

It’s the gift that keeps on taking. The old Giants Stadium, demolished to make way for New Meadowlands Stadium, still carries about $110 million in debt, or nearly $13 for every New Jersey resident, even though it is now a parking lot.

The financial hole was dug over decades by politicians who passed along the cost of building and fixing the stadium, and it is getting deeper. With the razing of the old stadium and the Giants and the Jets moving into their splashy new home next door, a big source of revenue to pay down the debt has shriveled.

New Jerseyans are hardly alone in paying for stadiums that no longer exist. Residents of Seattle’s King County owe more than $80 million for the Kingdome, which was razed in 2000. The story has been similar in Indianapolis and Philadelphia. In Houston, Kansas City, Mo., Memphis and Pittsburgh, residents are paying for stadiums and arenas that were abandoned by the teams they were built for.

There is a lesson here for proponents of publicly financed incinerators, mass transit systems and the plethora of one sided public/private sector contracts signed by government types. Taxpayers are ultimately left holding the debt long after the private sector predators have milked a publicly financed project dry and left town very wealthy. It's income redistribution on steroids.