From: niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent)
Subject: Re: jints to stay
Originator: news@nimaster
Keywords: Giants
Organization: Princeton University
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 00:22:41 GMT

In article <1992Nov14.011821.9120@informix.com> barrym@informix.com (Barry Mednick) writes:
>In article <1992Nov13.002959.2509@Princeton.EDU> niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent) writes:

>>I'd vote against a stadium for the Orioles
>>(too late) even if it meant they might leave, too.  For some reason, I'm
>>philosophically opposed to handing taxpayer's money to multimillionaires
>>when there are plenty of worthwhile causes that need the money more.

>>Let Bob Lurie build his own stadium instead of trying to steal from the
>>pockets of the people of San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Clara, etc.

>I take a different view.  If you want Madonna to give a concert in your
>town, you don't ask her to build her own auditorium.

I don't see the parallel.  Madonna doesn't play in a city to benefit the
city; she does it to benefit herself.  I might want to see her concert,
but I certainly wouldn't want to pay to build an auditorium for it.  If
she doesn't like the one that's there, she can build one herself.

But she isn't artifically jacking up prices, of both her own and other
people's concerts, by violating anti-trust laws.

>A ballpark belongs to the public who rent it to a team.  

But there's no reason it has to be this way.  *Some* ballparks belong to
the teams themselves.  And this benefits the team, which makes more
money -- in the long run, though there's obviously more capital required
to start with -- AND the city, which can't lose the team very easily.

>Tampa, Baltimore, Cleveland and Denver build ballparks because they
>want a team.  This improves the city much the same way that libraries
>and parks do.  How many people would vote in favor of an opera house?
>a museum?  Should these not be built just because a majority might
>vote against it?  I don't think culture belongs on the ballot.  We elect

I'm a bigger baseball fan than anyone, but "culture?"  Come on.  And I
still haven't seen good evidence that having a team really helps a city
financially all that much.

>representatives to make studied, well-thought out decisions on behalf
>of the entire community.  Not everything a city does has to serve the
>interests of the majority.  

Well, I disagree.  Some things don't serve the majority *directly*, but
if there aren't at least indirect benefits for the majority, then why
should/would the majority support it?   I'm not exactly for unrestrained
majoritarianism, but minority rule because "we know what's best for
everyone" seems even more bizarre.

>Of course, if there were more teams available, governments would be in
>a better bargaining position and might be able to get the owner to
>invest in the ballpark.

Yeah, given this mystical "not-a-business" business that we're talking
about, I *really* don't think it makes sense for the cities to do what
they do.
-- 
David M. Nieporent   | Mike Mussina 1993 AL Cy Young Winner
niepornt@phoenix.    |------------------------------------ 
   princeton.edu     | "I still believe in a place called Hope."
Clinton/Gore '92.  Don't stop thinking about tomorrow.
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball