Billionaire's playground: the world of professional sports

[theHandpuppet]

16. Now just where are our Dem leaders on this issue?

This is embarrassing.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/12/republican-senator-targets-nfls-tax-exempt-status/

Republican Senator targets NFL’s tax-exempt status
Posted by Mike Florio on May 12, 2013, 6:09 PM EDT

The many NFL owners who are staunch Republicans may need to re-think their affiliations.

From Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford, who derailed the effort to upgrade Sun Life Stadium, to Arizona Senator John McCain, who wants to outlaw blackouts at publicly-funded stadium, and now to Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, who wants to remove the NFL’s tax-exempt status, a trio of Republican politicians have been putting the screws to pro football.

Coburn’s effort, as explained by Dave D’Allesandro of the Newark Star-Ledger, applies to other pro sports leagues that have shoehorned their way into non-profit status, including the NHL and the PGA. Coburn believes that stripping the assessment from the NFL and NHL alone will generate $91 million per year in additional tax income.

The specific benefit to the NFL of tax-exempt status isn’t known, but the league already has decided that the reduced tax burden justifies the inability to shield from public view the salaries paid to key officials. Commissioner Roger Goodell, for example, made nearly $30 million in the year covered by the most recent filing. If the NFL didn’t possess tax-exempt status, no one other than the league’s owners and a handful of league-office employees would know how much Goodell makes... MORE