HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle

How Football Fleeces Taxpayers: Gregg Easterbrook on The King of Sports

Views: 258
Whether you like football or not - whether you've ever bought a ticket to a high school, college, or NFL game - you're paying for it.

That's one of the takeaways from The King of Sports: Football's Impact on America, Gregg Easterbrook's fascinating new book on the cultural, economic, and political impact of America's most popular and lucrative sport.

"The state-supported University of Maryland charges each...undergraduate $400 a year to subsidize the football program," says Easterbrook, who notes that only a half-dozen or so college teams are truly self-supporting. Even powerhouse programs such as the University of Florida's pull money from students and taxpayers. "They do it," he says, "because they can get away with it."

At the pro level, billionaire team owners such as Paul Allen of the Seattle Seahawks and Shahid Khan of the Jacksonville Jaguars benefit from publicly financed stadiums for which they pay little or nothing while reaping all revenue. Easterbrook also talks about how the lobbyists managed to get the NFL chartered as a nonprofit by amending tax codes designed for chambers of commerce and trade organizations.

As ESPN.com's Tuesday Morning Quarterback columnist, Easterbrook absolutely loves football but also isn't slow to throw penalty flags at the game he thinks is uniquely America. In fact, he sees the hypocrisy at the center of the business of football as "one of the ways that football synchs with American culture....Everyone in football talks rock-ribbed conservatism, self-reliance. Then their economic structure is subsidies and guaranteed benefits. Isn't that America?"

Easterbrook sat down with Reason's Nick Gillespie to discuss The King of Sports, how the business of football burns taxpayers, and whether increased worries about brain injuries and other problems spell eventual doom for the NFL and other levels of play.

Produced by Todd Krainin. Cameras by Meredith Bragg and Krainin.

Runs about 8:45 minutes.

Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to ReasonTV's YouTube Channel to receive notification when new material goes live.
@ReasonVidsfollow
Thumbnail for Nurse Practitioners Can Make Health Care Cheaper (and Doctors Want to Stop Them)5:09
Nurse Practitioners Can Make Health Care Cheaper (and Doctors Want to Stop Them)
ReasonVids
281 views
Thumbnail for How Eva Moskowitz Outmuscled the Teachers Union16:52
How Eva Moskowitz Outmuscled the Teachers Union
ReasonVids
318 views
Thumbnail for You Have a Right to Buy and Sell Sex. Will the Courts Protect It By Legalizing Prostitution?9:46
You Have a Right to Buy and Sell Sex. Will the Courts Protect It By Legalizing Prostitution?
ReasonVids
226 views
Thumbnail for Officers on Trial in Killing of Kelly Thomas2:16
Officers on Trial in Killing of Kelly Thomas
ReasonVids
279 views
Thumbnail for How Glamour Shapes Our Lives: Q&A with Former Reason Editor Virginia Postrel1:02:05
How Glamour Shapes Our Lives: Q&A with Former Reason Editor Virginia Postrel
ReasonVids
273 views
Thumbnail for Billionaire Michael Saylor Believes in Bitcoin More Than Ever1:08:24
Billionaire Michael Saylor Believes in Bitcoin More Than Ever
ReasonVids
243 views
Thumbnail for TSA "My Ding-a-Ling" Sing-Along0:54
TSA "My Ding-a-Ling" Sing-Along
ReasonVids
262 views
Thumbnail for Rep. Thomas Massie on Turd Sandwiches, Govt Surveillance, IRS Scandals43:45
Rep. Thomas Massie on Turd Sandwiches, Govt Surveillance, IRS Scandals
ReasonVids
268 views
Thumbnail for "Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender & the End of Normal": A Chat with Jack Halberstam and Thaddeus Russell24:15
"Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender & the End of Normal": A Chat with Jack Halberstam and Thaddeus Russell
ReasonVids
227 views
Thumbnail for SWAT team DESTROYED Innocent Woman’s Home but City Refused to Pay0:54
SWAT team DESTROYED Innocent Woman’s Home but City Refused to Pay
IJvids
242 views
Thumbnail for Texas Schools Track Students with RFID Chips! (Nanny of the Month, Nov '12)1:19
Texas Schools Track Students with RFID Chips! (Nanny of the Month, Nov '12)
ReasonVids
231 views
Thumbnail for You Can Get 5 Years in Prison for Selling Llama Poop. A Chronicle of Our Most Ludicrous Laws19:23
You Can Get 5 Years in Prison for Selling Llama Poop. A Chronicle of Our Most Ludicrous Laws
ReasonVids
322 views
Thumbnail for OKC Mayor Sacks Lingerie Football! Reason.tv's Nanny of the Month (Nov 2010)1:18
OKC Mayor Sacks Lingerie Football! Reason.tv's Nanny of the Month (Nov 2010)
ReasonVids
226 views
Thumbnail for How City Hall is F*cking Record Store Day!3:47
How City Hall is F*cking Record Store Day!
ReasonVids
276 views
Thumbnail for If You Love Reason, Help Us Fight For Free Minds and Free Markets for Another 45 Years!1:16
If You Love Reason, Help Us Fight For Free Minds and Free Markets for Another 45 Years!
ReasonVids
343 views
Thumbnail for The Navy Yard Shooting & Gun Control1:45
The Navy Yard Shooting & Gun Control
ReasonVids
223 views
Thumbnail for Reason.tv at the Washington DC Tea Party3:07
Reason.tv at the Washington DC Tea Party
ReasonVids
315 views
Thumbnail for Will World War III Be Fought By Robots? The Rise of Autonomous Weapons13:16
Will World War III Be Fought By Robots? The Rise of Autonomous Weapons
ReasonVids
275 views
Thumbnail for The Giving Tree vs Atlas Shrugged: YA Author Arin Greenwood on "Save the Enemy"7:42
The Giving Tree vs Atlas Shrugged: YA Author Arin Greenwood on "Save the Enemy"
ReasonVids
253 views
Thumbnail for We Shut Down State Mental Hospitals. Some Want to Bring Them Back.17:42
We Shut Down State Mental Hospitals. Some Want to Bring Them Back.
ReasonVids
249 views
Thumbnail for BIG HEALTH CARE LAWSUIT:   Is your state pulling a medical CON job?1:22
BIG HEALTH CARE LAWSUIT: Is your state pulling a medical CON job?
IJvids
269 views
Thumbnail for Obama Gets Busted on Mythbusters!0:46
Obama Gets Busted on Mythbusters!
ReasonVids
258 views

points

Permalink
Reply
american football (sport), national football league (organization), gregg easterbrook, nick gillespie (author), todd krainin, sports (industry), espn (tv network), reason (periodical), libertarianism (school of thought), taxation in the united states (literature subject), internal revenue service (organization), non-profit organization (industry), university of maryland college park (college/university), higher education (school category), college football (sport)
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle