[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 175 (Tuesday, November 7, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16721-S16722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               A HOUSING PROGRAM FOR MIDDLE-AGED RICH MEN

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, in these days of government spending 
cutbacks there is one notable exception: public housing programs for 
middle-aged rich owners of professional sports teams.
  Yesterday's announcement that the Cleveland Browns will move to 
Baltimore demonstrates once again that these rich folks who play 
monopoly games with their football, baseball, and basketball team 
franchises can play city off against city to hammerlock officials and 
fans to pay for expensive, new taxpayer financed sports stadiums in 
which they can house their privately owned teams.
  There is insufficient money for public housing for poor people in 
America, but the sky is the limit for public housing for those rich 
folks who own professional sports teams and who insist the taxpayers 
build them a place to play.
  No owner of a professional football, baseball, basketball, or hockey 
team will ever be homeless. Governments--local, State, and Federal--
will see to it that there are enough public resources available to 
build stadiums worth hundreds of millions of dollars with sky boxes for 
the affluent. Governments will virtually guarantee that money from 
parking, concessions, and sky boxes will make rich owners richer and 
overpaid athletes financially fat and happy.
  The thing about this that irritates me is that taxpayers in our part 
of the country: North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming--help 
in both direct and indirect ways to pay for this housing program for 
rich sports owners.
  But there will never be a press conference in which a major sports 
team owner announces he is moving his team to Bismarck or Cheyenne or 
Helena.
  This little monopoly game that bestows enormous economic awards on 
certain regions of the country is a private domain played between the 
wealthy sports owners and the largest cities of America. The rest of us 
are required, through lost tax revenue, to help pay the bills.
  Yesterday's announcement about the Cleveland Browns moving to 
Baltimore is apparently a result of a promise of a new $200 million 
stadium in Baltimore to be used rent-free for 7 years by the Browns' 
owner. Skybox, parking, and concession revenues go to the owner as 
well. In addition, the owner apparently received $75 million as a bonus 
for moving the team.
  I do not know the owner of the Cleveland Browns from a cord of wood 
so I am not judging him. And he is not alone in moving a sports team in 
search of more money. And team owners are no different than athletes: 
they are two peas in a pod. They jump ship and leave town in search of 
more money. It is all about money--money for the owners and money for 
the athletes.
  Fans are the pawns who end up paying the bills through ticket prices 
and taxes. Fans are reduced to rooting for uniforms rather than people. 
The star athlete in one city one week may well end up playing against 
that city the next week as a result of trades or moves by athletes and 
owners in search of the highest dollar.
  In circumstances where monopolies rule the day--and they do in 
professional sports--you cannot start an NBA team in Bismarck, or you 
cannot start an NFL team in Sioux Falls. Money and control replace the 
benefits of competition, and everyone pays except the owners and the 
athletes.
  I would not take the time to comment on this issue, except that what 
is happening in professional sports is a perversion. This is about big 
guys and big money, and the little guy be damned. And guess who ends up 
paying for the sports stadiums and who ends up paying for those 
lucrative salaries for the athletes and handsome profits for the 
owners? The little guy. The fact is, professional sports is sticking 
its finger in the fan's eye.
  A story last week pointed out the cost of taking a family of four to 
a National Basketball Association professional game this season has 
risen to $192, up 10 percent from last year. It costs about $130 for 
four tickets, an average of $32 per ticket, and you have to add some 
hot dogs, a program and a cap so the cost for four people adds up to 
nearly $200 to attend a game. Something is wrong; something is terribly 
wrong in professional sports when we have come to that. And ticket 
prices for hockey and football are even higher.
  I think that Congress ought to hold some hearings on the subject of 
professional sports: where it has been; where it is going; who profits, 
by how much, and at whose expense.
  Why is it in 1995 that the only healthy public housing program is one 
to build sports stadiums for rich, middle-aged sports owners? Why, when 
so many cities would like to host a professional sports team, do the 
leagues restrict expansion unreasonably, so that existing teams can 
extract outrageous ticket prices from citizens who have no 
alternatives?
  I think it is reasonable for our country to ask whether these 
monopolies, 

[[Page S 16722]]
where a few rich owners can make judgments about where to bestow 
hundreds of millions of dollars of economic benefits to one region or 
another or one city or another, are in concert with the interests of 
our economy and our country.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I will take a moment to bid farewell to 
my friend Yitzhak Rabin. I was unable to attend the funeral due to some 
family responsibilities, but had an opportunity to get to know the 
Prime Minister well in his visits to the United States. And to speak to 
him three or four times a year about the foreign aid program for Israel 
and other issues related to the Middle East.
  Not only has Israel lost a great statesman but the world has lost one 
of the premier figures of this century.

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