The Washington Redskins want a new stadium somewhere in the Beltway region, and the team has three suitors who’d love to have it, Washington, D.C.; Maryland; and Virginia. If you’ve been following the business of sports, you’re probably thinking, “Ah, another bidding war, where governments offer embarrassingly large subsidies to billionaire owners.”
Not this time, it seems. In a move unprecedented in recent sports history, all the local heads of government have agreed to eschew subsidies to the Skins. It’s a cartel against corporate welfare and a promise to compete for the team on other terms.
A bill was introduced in Maryland’s legislature this month to codify this pact, while Virginia’s legislature and D.C.’s city council also have bills before them to nail down this abstinence pledge of sorts. We applaud Democratic Maryland State Del. David Moon, Virginia Republican Del. Michael Webert, and Independent D.C. City Council Member David Grosso for sponsoring these measures, which we hope will become law soon.
This is surprisingly a welcome news, and it may have resulted from the perfect storm that hovers over the NFL and the Redskins franchise.
Liberals and Democrats hold some resentment against Dan Snyder, not only for being a Trump supporter but also for his unwillingness to surrender the franchise name “Redskins.” Democrats control the Maryland General Assembly and the D.C. City Council, as well as Virginia’s governorship.
Meanwhile, conservatives and Republicans dislike the NFL, because it emboldened players who knelt during the playing of the national anthem at games, following the example of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Republicans hold a slim majority of seats in both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly.
Throw in the Redskins’ averaging about six wins per season over the past half-decade, and you have a remarkably skimpy appetite for subsidies.
The result is rare bipartisan agreement that government subsidies and incentives to pay for mammoth sports stadiums and arenas do little to stimulate a local economy. “Providing state and local subsidies to build stadiums for professional sports teams is likely to cost the relevant taxpayers more than any local economic benefits that are generated,” 83 percent of economists agreed in a 2017 poll. Study after study has shown this. It’s a bad deal, except for the owners who get free money and the politicians who get the owners’ gratitude.
The Beltway area isn’t usually the source of great ideas, but this compact could set the standard for how other cities and municipalities can cooperate in handling negotiations with sports franchises in the future.
It’s certainly the type of compact that the 20 municipal leaders should look to with respect to the bidding war currently underway for the second headquarters of Amazon.
Local and regional governments should realize that there are better ways to compete for businesses. Cutting regulations and lowering taxes helps. Build solid infrastructure and try to produce and attract an educated local workforce and businesses are more than willing to open up shop in their neighborhood.
Any city, county, or state that does this to attract the Redskins or Amazon may not win the big prize, but it certainly won’t regret it as more businesses flock in.
So here’s to a great idea to come out of the “swamp” region of the country, and here’s hoping it spreads.
