Billions of public dollars have been thrown at the Pacers and Thunder ownership groups.
There probably are a few people who are complaining that the National Basketball Association’s television ratings will be depressed because the league’s crown jewel event, the Championship series, is being played between Indiana and Oklahoma City. Indianapolis is the 25th biggest TV market in the United States while Oklahoma City comes in at 47. The NBA will get eyeballs in front of video platforms but what is more significant about this matchup from a political perspective is this. The Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder franchises are among the most heavily subsidized sports businesses in the United States.
On December 12th, 2023, Oklahoma City voters said yes to spending at least $850 million for a new multipurpose arena. Seventy-one percent of the voters said yes and only 29 percent voted against continuing a one percent sales tax hike that will cover the city’s cost of construction. Just 15 percent of Oklahoma City eligible voters cast a ballot on the arena referendum. Oklahoma City residents and people who buy things in Oklahoma City will pick up at least 94.44 percent of the arena’s construction tab. The billionaire owners of the NBA team are on the hook for slightly more than five percent of the arena’s price tag. The building will open in 2028. The Indiana Pacers ownership group got a new arena built in 1999 that was heavily subsidized by taxpayers’ dollars. The Pacers’ ownership was required to pay a dollar a year in rent. Indiana taxpayers threw more money at Pacers’ owner Herb Simon in 2010 to keep him in town for three more years and more money was thrown at Simon in 2014 to keep him in town through 2024. And more money was thrown at him in 2019 to keep the team in town through 2044. TV ratings don’t matter as long as public money is thrown at owners.
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Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
