Taxpayer Watchdog Exposes the True March Madness: $2.7 Billion in Taxpayer Subsidized Arenas

Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance today announced a review of taxpayer-funded stadium subsidies by Drew Johnson, a Senior Fellow at TPA.  In the exposé, TPA uncovered that all 13 venues hosting games during the 2012 Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament have received millions of dollars in tax money. In total, the arenas used in this year’s NCAA Tournament have cost local, federal and state taxpayers a combined $2.7 billion.

“While taxpayers shell out millions subsidizing arenas, there are plenty of folks who are raking it in. Professional team owners who use the facilities regularly, media outlets broadcasting tournament games and the NCAA itself are all making millions on the backs of hard working taxpayers,” Johnson said. “We all love a Cinderella story, but stadium subsidies are one game where the little guy never wins.”

March Madness is seen as a time to showcase the best of college sports. Unfortunately, this year’s installment of the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament also highlights the worst in wasteful government spending, according to the TPA.

Taxpayers have subsidized the construction, renovation and operation of the arenas. Handouts to these sports venues have come in a variety of forms: state and local grants, land giveaways, favorable lease arrangements, federal disaster relief funding and every type of bond imaginable. 

TPA found that no stadium hosting a tournament game this year has consumed more taxpayer cash than the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Including interest, city, county and state taxpayers will spend $720 million to repay the money borrowed to build the Dome. That doesn’t include the $30 million in tax dollars spent in 2009 to install new scoreboards and credit card readers at concession stands, among other upgrades.

“The $2.7 billion price tag associated with the arena used during the NCAA tournament may give March Madness a maddening new meaning for taxpayers,” said Johnson.

Other March Madness venues devouring tax dollars include:

• $471 million for construction of the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky;
• $216 million for construction plus $880,000 annually for operations for the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska;
• $214 million for construction of the Georgia Dome, Atlanta;
• $150.2 million for construction and renovation plus $8 million annually for operations for the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee;
• $47.6 million for construction of the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
• $42.5 million to purchase the Nationwide Arena from private owners in Columbus, Ohio;
• $35 million for construction  of the U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona
• $34.5 million for construction of the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon;
• $20 million for renovations plus $1.5 million annually for operations at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina;
• $18 million for renovations at The Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and
• $16 million for land acquisition at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts

It seems fitting that the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans hosts the men’s Final Four and the championship game this year. From day one, the Superdome has been a boondoggle for taxpayers. Local tax dollars were used to fund the stadium’s original $134 million construction cost, state taxpayers bankrolled a $186.5 million lease arrangement and, in the months following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans snatched nearly a quarter million dollars in federal giveaway to repair the venue. Finally, Louisiana residents furnished $85 million for additional Superdome renovations between 2009 and 2011.  In total, lawmakers have squandered nearly $650 million in federal, state and local tax dollars to subsidize the Superdome.