One of the fundamental tools of media analysis — or, if you’re working for the dark side, media spin — is framing: how the exact same information can be presented in different ways to emphasize one aspect or another. This can be done in passing, as with my dismissal of the entire field of public relations in the last sentence as “the dark side,” or in the very structure of an article, where by cherry-picking what to present as the main takeaway one can report the same news in very different ways.
Which brings us to this article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Missouri is in good position to host World Cup soccer, lieutenant governor says
Hey, great! The 2026 World Cup is going to be held in the U.S. and Mexico and Canada, and St. Louis just got a new soccer stadium at a cost of only $60 million in tax breaks, while Kansas City has the Chiefs‘ stadium, and now the two cities have “pretty good” chances of hosting some games, according to Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe. That seems to be all there is to this feel-good story, down to the 10th paragraph now, the 11th, oh wait—
Missouri lawmakers are being asked to approve legislation that would stop the collection of sales taxes on World Cup ticket sales.
Under legislation filed by Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, the tax would be left off the tickets during the duration of the event.
Kehoe said the existence of the tax is a red flag to FIFA.
“It is a deal breaker,” Kehoe said.
So, basically, we have at least one answer to how FIFA plans to decide which cities to place 2026 World Cup games in: Start by eliminating any cities that don’t agree to hand over a giant tax break. This is common in other siting decisions like the Olympics and Super Bowl, of course, but it’s the first time I’ve noticed it with regard to which cities within a host country get World Cup matches.
As for how much the tax break would cost Missouri, let’s do some math. There will be 80 games spread across 16 cities, so that’s five games per city. The Chiefs’ stadium holds 76,000 people, so if they sell out all the matches, at let’s say an average of $200 a ticket, which seems reasonable based on past World Cup pricing, that’s $76 million in ticket sales. Missouri’s state sales tax is 4.225%, so that’s around $3 million that the state would be kicking back to FIFA. Which isn’t a ton — state officials say that World Cup visitors could spend $600 million, which like all such estimates is a gross exaggeration, but even if you move the decimal place over one it would likely create a couple million dollars in new non-ticket sales taxes. Still, it would be $3 million that the state of Missouri would normally collect from a big event, except that the multibillion-dollar international crime syndicate (not my words, a U.S. Senator called FIFA this, and John Oliver would likely agree) in charge of deciding where to put the games demanded that it instead be given to them in small bills.
Anyway, where was I? Oh right, framing! Don’t read the daily newspaper’s headlines, read my headlines instead, that’s what I’m saying. (Our next lesson will be in aggregation.)
Nice work.
Do you find it odd that Blumenthal apparently has not noticed that the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball all operate exactly the same way?
Is Dick Blumenthal Eurocentric????
And boy, it sure is a good thing that Ms. James (?) dogged pursuit of Olympic corruption circa 2019 only went back 15 years and not 20… she might have discovered what happened at the Salt Lake City games of 2002 otherwise.
Just lucky I guess…