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Wayne Huizenga's scheming for taxpayer

and the National Basketball Association

(NBA)--enthusiastically play the stadium

subsidies is by no means unique in the "wide

world of sports." Sports teams sometimes pur-

subsidies game.

sue taxpayer dollars off the field with greater

All the pre-Depression baseball stadiums in

tenacity than they do victories on the field.

use today were originally built with private

And as we shall see, they have been quite suc-

funds: Wrigley Field, Tiger Stadium, Yankee

cessful in picking off taxpayer dollars. Public

Stadium, and Fenway Park. In 1912, Tiger

subsidies pad the bottom lines of team owners

Stadium (originally known as Navin Field)

and boost player salaries while offering no real

opened in Detroit at a cost of $500,000.16 That

economic benefit to the cities involved. They

same year, Fenway Park, built at a cost of

provide another example of government

$364,500, opened in Boston.17 Chicago's

action whereby the few and the influential

Wrigley Field was erected in 1914 at a cost of

benefit at the cost of the many.

$250,000.18 "The House That Ruth Built," a

Federal, state, and local officials have

$2.5 million structure built on land purchased

shown themselves more than willing to fork

for $600,000, opened in New York in 1923.19

over taxpayer dollars to the sports world. And

Hockey's Toronto Maple Leafs put down

such willingness knows no political party

roots in Maple Leaf Gardens in 1931 (they had

From the most

boundaries: From the most liberal Democrats

previously played in the Mutual Street Arena).

liberal Democrats

to the most conservative Republicans, sports

The story of Maple Leaf Gardens shows how,

pork is a rampant, bipartisan effort, and there

even in the most dire of economic times, the

to the most con-

is no end in sight.

private sector can build sports facilities with-

servative

out government assistance. David Mills

Republicans,

explains:

A Short History of

sports pork is a

Major League Sports

Although money was tight because of

rampant, biparti-

and Government Subsidies

the Great Depression, [Conn] Smythe

san effort, and

bought land in downtown Toronto for

$350,000 from the T. Eaton Company

Extensive subsidization of sports by gov-

there is no end in

(which took a second mortgage of

ernment has been a fairly recent development

sight.

$300,000 and $25,000 worth of stock).

in U.S. history. Princeton University political

In order to build an arena, Smythe bor-

scientist Michael Danielson has noted:

rowed $900,000 from the Sun Life

"Professional sports were . . . a product of the

Assurance Company, which held the

business ethos of the late nineteenth-century

first mortgage, and another $900,000

city. In cities dominated by private enterprise,

from the Bank of Commerce; both

sports offered another opportunity for profit

institutions had their own men on the

seeking. Teams were privately owned; they

board of directors of Smythe's compa-

were organized into private leagues; and they

ny. They not only provided the capital

played in private ballparks."14 Later, Danielson

for the creation of Maple Leaf Gardens,

explained: "Prior to the Great Depression, big

Ltd., they participated in the financial

league playing facilities were private enterpris-

decision making of the company.

es. Entrepreneurs acquired land, built ball-

Maple Leaf Gardens opened on

parks and arenas, and operated them. In base-

November 12, 1931, with a standing-

ball, teams shifted from grounds rented from

room-only crowd of 13,542. Moreover,

other private parties to building their own

Smythe's company had been able to

fields, with all clubs playing in team-owned

overcome a financial crisis that had left

parks by World War I."15

Today, all four major league sports--Major

it short of funds; the construction

unions in the Toronto Labour Council

League Baseball, the National Football League

had finally agreed to take 20 percent of

(NFL), the National Hockey League (NHL),

3