Floyd Mayweather earned $250,000,000.00 for his fight

[JonLP24]

22. I have big problems with NFL/NBA/NHL/MLB stadium financing

The problem starts with the NFL having leverage over cities because of a fixed supply (closed entry league) of professional sports teams & a very high demand from cities to host a professional sports franchise. They threaten to relocate or in the case with Goddell employ the Super Bowl extortion (Miami, San Diego, Atlanta, & others will never host a Super Bowl until they build a new stadium) to leverage cities/countries/municipals for Sweet Heart deals. Seattle & the state of Washington after building a new Mariners & Seahawks building were dealing with the Sonics asking for a Sweetheart deal. They relocated to Oklahoma City.

Washington actually changed their state law to require fair financing but having difficulty finding the specifics, do recall a longtime effort to build a new one to attract a team -- found this though

Seattle arena deal approved

The County Council approved it unanimously, while the City Council voted 7-2. Both bodies had previously OK'd different versions of the deal.

"This is a very good financial plan here," said County Councilman Reagan Dunn, a Republican who earlier had concerns about the deal. "It's been well thought-through."

Mayor Mike McGinn called the votes important steps toward bringing professional men's basketball back to Seattle. He and King County Executive Dow Constantine were scheduled to sign the deal Tuesday.

Hedge fund manager Chris Hansen is leading a group that wants to build the $490 million arena near the existing Mariners and Seahawks stadiums with $200 million in public financing. The public investment would be paid back with rent money and admissions taxes from the arena, and if that money falls short, Hansen would be responsible for making up the rest. Other investors include Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and two members of the Nordstrom department store clan.

<snip>

Under the deal, the arena proposal will undergo an environmental review that could take a year. The review will also look at whether other sites, including Seattle Center, where KeyArena is, should be considered.

But that's not good enough, members of two International Longshore and Warehouse Union locals said Monday. The agreement between Hansen and the city goes too far by presuming the arena will be built in the neighborhood south of downtown, where increased traffic could choke freight shipments at the Port of Seattle, they said.

By essentially picking the site before an environmental review is done, the deal reverses the steps required by the State Environmental Policy Act, the unions said. They threatened to sue to block the deal once it's signed by McGinn and Constantine.

"The cart's been thrown before the horse here," said Max Vekich, a member of ILWU Local 52 and co-chair of Save Our SoDo Jobs. Using a football metaphor, he added: "We want to throw a red flag here and ask for instant review."

The unions pointed to a previous case in which Seattle approved plans for developing mixed-income housing at Fort Lawton, a former military site near Discovery Park, without providing for proper environmental review under state law. Neighbors in the Magnolia neighborhood sued, and an appeals court blocked the project.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8509900/seattle-arena-deal-gets-final-approval

I don't know of the latest with that except to say this has been in the works for a very long time with the major hiccup being state law not giving enough in public financing. From 2012, if nothing changes, than Seattle could have an arena with no NBA/NHL hoping to attract one. Kansas City built a state-of-the-art arena several years ago hoping to either be awarded a NBA or NHL team but currently have neither. The Sprint Center does regularly host the Big 12 Championship and some big Big 12 rivalry college basketball games but it highlights the demand which the pro leagues (especially under economics major Roger Goddell) take advantage of to fatten their own pockets. The budgets bleeding red ink -- they don't care & nothing can be done unless Congress acts since taxpayers cannot be considered consumers due to precedent for anti-trust lawsuits. The European leagues don't have this problem because of promotion -- relegation plus size of the countries as you see teams playing in the same building & logically paying for renovations & repair rather than building a brand new place at the owners expense (with the exception of the stands collapse where government assisted with a subsidy).

Even if the city/county/state does everything right & does what it is right financially for their budget, the team will pack up & move to a city that will give them the sweet heart deal which furthers worsen the problem because what is more effective than a relocation threat is a relocation example.

I could go on (and have) but you may find this study interesting

January 12, 2012
League Structure & Stadium Rent Seeking
the Role of Antitrust Revisited

http://luc.edu/media/lucedu/law/centers/antitrust/pdfs/publications/workingpapers/haddock_jacobi,_sag__stadium_rent.pdf

This is may favorite site for latest news (there is always something new in the stadium extortion business) from the economics perspective (it really highlights the baffling logic of it all)
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2012/11/05/4069/goodell-falcons-need-a-new-stadium-because-moneyyyyyyy/

On edit -- I forgot my point, I view the Mayweather fight payout as something very different as it is revenue generated from PPV fights. With no idea where the bout took place (Cowboys Stadium has had some big fights including a Mayweather & undercard title fight which Rigondeaux won) but chances are it was Vegas & with no idea how it was financed (not for anyone fighter & besides they have casinos which take advantage of the supply & demand of tourists with I imagine favorable tax-breaks). People, personally purchasing the fight plus the Showtime-HBO contracts they have their individual exclusive boxer (for promotional reasons and they wouldn't do it if they didn't profit from the expense). Something completely different, not at-all like taxpayers giving millionaire-billionaire owners sweet heart deals to give mostly millionaires full-time employment (which the sweetheart deals across the countries drives up the salaries).