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OPINION: How to scam an entire city: build a stadium

It’s been over 13 years since Indianapolis’ own Lucas Oil Stadium officially opened to the public. Lucas Oil Stadium serves as a multipurpose stadium, most notably for the Indianapolis Colts. It seats over 67,000 people and is complete with a first of its kind retractable roof and windows. 

The home of the Colts is truly a spectacle for Indiana’s capital. The stadium is remarkable, and it only cost a small price of $720 million

Of that $720 million, the Colts were only responsible for paying $100 million even though the owner of the team, Jim Irsay, is worth about 3.5 billion dollars. Indianapolis and the surrounding areas were left to finance a good portion of the stadium.

New stadiums are breathtaking and often provide a city with a sense of civic pride, but building stadiums using public funds exploits the residents while billionaire owners sit back and watch.

When new stadiums are being built, they negotiate with state and city governments to determine how or if a stadium will be funded. Cities fund their payments through an increase in sales taxes, tourism taxes and bonds.

Judith Grant Long, associate professor of Urban Planning at Harvard University, studied all 121 pro sports stadiums used in 2010. Long said Lucas Oil Stadium required the most public funding. The Colts and the city of Indianapolis still owe $633 million dollars for…

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