David Sirota reports on how we all, fans or not, pay for professional sports: Didn’t Watch the Super Bowl? You Still Got Charged
That term—Sports Tax—is not hyperbolic. In a week that saw Louisiana fork over $5 million to the NFL for the privilege of helping that league make big Super Bowl money, Sports Tax is the most accurate catch-all label for the four sets of levies the public is being made to shell out.
The first Sports Tax comes from the higher taxes we all pay in order to fund direct handouts....In all, Bloomberg Businessweek reports that “taxpayers have committed $18.6 billion since 1992 to subsidies for the NFL’s 32 teams, counting the expense of building stadiums, forgone real estate taxes, land and infrastructure improvements, and interest costs on public bonds.” That's almost $1 billion every year—and that's just for football, meaning the figure isn't even counting similar handouts for other leagues.
The second Sports Tax comes in the form of a rigged tax code, which effectively compels honest taxpayers to bankroll professional teams....The report concluded that because of this, “Taxpayers may be losing at least $91 million subsidizing these tax loopholes for professional sports leagues that generate billions of dollars annually in profits.”
The third Sports Tax is embedded in your cable television bill. ... [T]he Los Angeles Times reports that up to half of your total cable payment is “for the sports channels packaged into most services.” That's because the sports stations tend to charge significantly higher rates than other outlets, and yet are automatically included in most basic cable packages, thereby preventing ratepayers from opting out. The result is a tax obligating those who do not watch sports to subsidize those who do.
The final Sports Tax hits you two ways: First when your annual taxes go to support higher education and then when you or your kids pay ever-higher tuition rates. In both situations, your cash is typically subsidizing large schools' sprawling athletic departments. That's right—thanks in part to multi-million-dollar coaching salaries, 93 percent of those departments bring in less money than they generate, meaning you are paying a Sports Tax to make up the difference.