The trend of sports franchises getting these ridiculously expensive stadiums - and using extortion to obtain them - has been making news now for a number of years. It keeps happening, and it is not necessarily an improvement. As a fan of the New York Football Giants and Jets, for example, I have heard many fans share my own opinion that the old Giants Stadium was better. It had more character and atmosphere than the overly neutral, and far too fancy, MetLife Stadium. Maybe some prefer the new stadium, but there are a lot of us who do not. Also, maybe some are not bothered by just how expensive the stadium was, but I sure am.
Yet, the Giants and Jets are hardly alone. The Rams and Chargers just got their fancy new stadium in Los Angeles, which also just hosted the Super Bowl. The Cowboys have a fancy stadium of their own, replacing the old Texas Stadium. The 49ers left Candlestick Park in San Francisco for just such a characterless stadium some forty minutes away, and fans are displeased that the temperatures there can be so much hotter than they generally are in the Bay area itself. There are plenty of other teams that have gotten either new stadiums, or are attempting to get them in the near future.
Nor is this trend restricted to the NFL. New stadiums and arenas have pretty much become the norm in North American sports. The result is, as John Oliver shows in this video, that in fact, taxpayers in cities with sports franchises wind up shelling a hell of a lot of money for stadiums and all sorts of extra nonsense that they do not need, like a huge aquarium inside of the arena, or swimming pools atop the viewing stands, where fans can simultaneously take a dip while taking in the game.
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