edwahu wrote: ↑December 31, 2018, 1:42 pm
yurithe1 wrote: ↑December 31, 2018, 1:22 pm
Have a look at some of the stadiums the college football teams play in. Not all of them are NCAA powerhouses either.
Pretty sure a lot of those are funded by mega rich alumni. They aren't directly government funded at least.
I did some research. The Georgia Bulldogs, for example, built the original stadium by having members of the athletic association signing notes guaranteeing a bank loan to fund construction. Those guarantors were granted lifetime seats in return. The response was overwhelming and in 1928 a loan of $150,000 supported by fans and alumni allowed construction to begin on a stadium whose total cost was $360,000. In 2017, their Athletic Board approved a $63 million expansion to renovate the west side of the stadium.
However, the privately-owned Atlanta Falcons have managed to get the Mercedes Benz Stadium you saw photos of above under an interesting deal that sees the Georgia government impose a hotel tax, hand the money over and then keep on handing money over to cover maintenance, etc. For details, see:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... fl-stadium
Meanwhile, the Oakland/Las Vegas (also use to be LA) Raiders were rebuffed by the local government when they asked for a new stadium to be built. The Nevada government stumped up the few billion needed and the Raiders are leaving again. Oakland is now suing the Raiders and the team is looking for somewhere else to play next season. One option could see them playing their home games in London.
The CDRL constitution pretty much prevents our Raiders moving and it's a worse case scenario that the Barr Government can be confident won't happen. So, we fans are screwed until after the next election assuming we don't get any more unexpected Mr Fluffy-like crap and they finally sort out this stupid light rail.