ALONG with framed family photos and magazine articles trumpeting his career, fifteen shovels adorn the walls of Steve Sisolak’s office. As the chair of the Clark County Commission, Mr Sisolak presides over many groundbreakings. He hopes to soon add a shovel to the wall to commemorate the start of construction on a 65,000-seat football stadium. The stadium proposal is at the crux of a plan to lure the Raiders football team to Sin City from Oakland, where the team currently shares a 1960s stadium with the Oakland Athletics baseball team. On January 19th the Raiders filed paperwork with the National Football League (NFL) expressing their intent to move to the Silver State. For this to go forward, 24 of 32 NFL team owners must approve it in a vote at the end of March.
Subsidising sports stadiums increased with the Tax Reform Act of 1986, says Ted Gayer of Brookings, a think-tank. The law intended to clamp down on the tax exemption of bonds used to finance many sports stadiums (though not the proposed Las Vegas arena). But in practice, it incentivised the federal government to match local subsidies....Continue reading
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