Moocherama

John Oliver's Takedown of Public Funding for Stadiums

By: Jeff McDonough

All over the country there are sports franchises that are rumored to be at least considering leaving their current city. The biggest reason given always seems to be because their stadium or arena is too old. This complaint always seems overblown to me. Stadiums cost so much money to build, that to tear down a perfectly functional one seems gratuitously wasteful. When you visit ballparks like Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, it is like watching a baseball game in a museum. It doesn’t matter if the game is a blowout because you can get your money’s worth just soaking in the sights. As long as older stadiums have sporadic updates over the years, I am an advocate of keeping them. Even places with much less prestige but that are still viewed as outdated, like Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, are perfectly adequate in my mind. I’ve seen basketball and wrestling there in recent years and had a lovely time. I see no reason why the city would spend the money to tear this place down and construct a new one.

That’s the real issue though. The money so often comes from the pockets of the government, and therefore, the taxpayers. The billionaires who run these teams — often as their secondary or tertiary businesses once they’ve made their fortunes — have the unmitigated gall to ask us to fund their fancy, new, luxury projects. The thinking is that new stadiums and all the events there will boost the local economy. John Oliver, the host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, asserts that this is a fallacy, in a scathing condemnation of this practice that he delivered two weeks ago. The money from those gaudy naming rights deals that landed Baltimore clunky-sounding stadiums like the aforementioned Royal Farms Arena — or how about when the Ravens called PSINet Stadium home? — often goes to the franchises and not the city. The money from additional events like concerts, well, Oliver points out that they may be only lining team owners’ pockets as well. But you better give them what they want because the threat to move your favorite team to another city always looms.

The critique of this common practice in sports by Oliver can be seen in the 19-minute video above. I highly recommend that you watch it. This is a real problem that persists in local politics. We love our sports teams so much that we often bend over backwards to appease greedy billionaires, fearing their threats to relocate the team. If the Sports Addict is saying that we need some perspective on this, you know it's gotten out of control. It’s a wonderful piece by Oliver calling out this manipulative game owners play for often unnecessary gains that could instead be going to things cities actually need. This is just an example of the kind informed, biting criticism that Oliver delivers to close the program every week. He’s done other sports related topics, including ripping FIFA multiple times. This may have, in fact, helped get the ball rolling on the groundswell of public scorn that led to all the recent arrests and sanctions on soccer’s corrupt governing body.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver airs Sundays at 11 P.M./EST for those with HBO — or an acumen for internet piracy. The main segment from each show is available on the Last Week Tonight YouTube page every Monday, so subscribe to that if I've peaked your interest. Even past the stadium piece, I cannot recommend the show as a whole enough. It was just nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Talk Series amongst some big time legends in their final seasons — David Letterman, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert — but I believe Oliver’s show is most deserving this year. This program is so informative that it’s almost unfair how simultaneously funny it is. It gives you a little taste of the satirical spin on current events that you get from The Daily Show or Weekend Update on SNL, but what makes it stand out to me is the actual investigative journalism being done here. The review of “last week” actually only takes up the first five to ten minutes of the half-hour time slot. The remainder is used for a weekly segment where they spotlight an issue that isn’t usually at the forefront of the public consciousness.

Oliver's segments on the plights of American chicken farmers and the struggle for rights of residents of overseas US territories brought attention to aggrieved groups that no one seems to talk about. Oliver and his staff have also taken on the bigger topics of torture, food waste and government surveillance — the last of which saw him discretely travel to Russia to interview fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden. This wasn’t some big thing he advertised in advance. He kind of just dropped the bomb midway through an episode that they had already filmed his interview. It is amazing that a comedy show can shed such light on these important topics, while keeping the laughs rolling.

I’m pretty moderate politically, so maybe that blinds me a little, but I don’t think the show steers too “political” to make it off-putting for those deeply-entrenched with one party or the other. This isn’t a “let’s make fun of Obama” or “let’s make fun of Fox News” type of show. Most weeks Oliver is mainly urging human decency and common sense. I think we can all get on board with that. And I’m glad to have Oliver out there publicizing these topics that the world needs to be talking about, all while cracking a few well-intentioned dick jokes.