More cities should do this. Sports franchise owners are engaging in a polite form of a shakedown when they tell local taxpayers, Build us a new arena or stadium or we'll leave. DeVos used to sing the praises of free enterprise to his soap salesmen, but he seems to have decided that a little socialism for himself wouldn't be a bad thing. It's funny how many billionaires and other corporate big shots like welfare as long as they are the recipients. Taxpayers naturally should no more build sports facilities for private corporations than they should build newspaper offices for communications companies.
Professional sports are private businesses.
They should have no claim whatsoever on the public purse. When people like DeVos make a bad investment or mismanage their sports business, it isn't up to the taxpayers to bail them out. Professional sports today, the province of billionaire owners and millionaire players, are like transnational corporations. They have no loyalty to the place where they happen to be located and no loyalty to their fans. They have to employ public-relations people to simulate some interest in the community and the fans, but it's just that, simulated.