Stadiums: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Why Hacker News recommends it
Pointed to in debates over stadium subsidies as a persuasive case that cities should not pay for stadiums.
What it is
John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment on cities spending public money on privately owned sports stadiums, including how tax-exempt municipal bonds subsidize them.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2016 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec antattack · 2022-03 · on “Cities should not pay for new stadiums”
John Oliver already settled this in 2015. After watching it, it's pretty clear that cities should not pay for stadiums. [this video]
Recommends joshstrange · 2016-02 · on “Why a city should not build a stadium for an NFL team”
John Oliver did a good piece on this as well and how crazy it is that the public pays so much for these things: [this video]
Cites toomuchtodo · 2017-10 · on “There Are No Houses for Amazonians”
> Hey if it works for sports stadiums why can't it work to create a company town Because it doesn't work for sports stadiums. It works in the sense of corporate welfare, but it is not a net gain for the community. [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [this video] It's sad watching cities fall over themselves to give Amazon (a half a trillion dollar company) a handout. Handouts no one can afford . > (but where cities take the hit if the company town fails) As a country [1], states [2], and many municipalities [3], we're very much insolvent as it relates to future obligations. Could we please stop supporting reckless behavior making it worse? [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK]