Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed the House yesterday by a single vote, and while there are probably other more important bits to pay attention to — the massive money transfer from the poor to the rich, the mandatory cuts to Medicare that would be triggered, the sops to Big Oil that could increase energy costs — it’s worth noting that it would also cut sports franchise owners’ amortization loophole in half. (This is the tax dodge discovered by Bill Veeck in the 1950s that allows some team owners to double-dip on deductions by claiming tax breaks both for their annual spending on player development and for the presumed loss in team value from the fact that players wear out and have to be replaced. It’s not the biggest of sports subsidies, and there’s no guarantee it will survive the Senate version of the bill, if the Senate actually passes it at all — recall that when Trump’s first-term tax bill tried to eliminate the use of tax-exempt bonds for sports stadiums, the Senate conveniently excised that language — it’s worth keeping one eye on.
The other eye, meanwhile, has had plenty to keep it busy this week:
- The Cleveland Browns stadium wars keep heating up, with Cleveland and Cuyahoga County officials saying they will no longer work with the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the region’s chamber of commerce, following the partnership’s endorsement of the Browns moving to a new stadium in Brook Park. Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, meanwhile, said that “we gotta move on” regarding the Browns remaining in their current stadium, and that he plans to focus on developing “a lakefront our residents can be proud of,” with plans to issue a request for proposals this summer. Meanwhile meanwhile, the owners of the Cavaliers and Guardians have issued letters to the partnership expressing concern that if the Browns owners seek to use cigarette and alcohol tax money for their stadium — something they haven’t done yet, but also the financing plan still has big holes in it at present — it could kill chances for Cleveland’s other teams to get increased “sin tax” money, given how much local voters hate the idea of using that money to move the Browns to Brook Park. A sin tax hike could bring in an additional $20 million a year, which could fund about $300 million in future repairs and upgrades for the three teams’ venues.
- The Oakland Athletics of West Sacramento‘s Las Vegas stadium has “essentially broken gr0und,” claims team president Marc Badain, with cranes coming in to do “shallow foundational work” starting July 1. Badain’s statement was largely overshadowed by the issuance of an agreement for the team to submit a $3.7 million bond to cover the costs of building an eight-foot wall around the site if no stadium ends up being built there; while this probably isn’t a sign that the project is on any shakier ground than already expected — the Raiders signed a similar agreement before successfully building their stadium — it’s still not a great look.
- There have been a bunch of town halls in D.C. around the proposed $7.5 billion–plus Washington Commanders stadium project subsidy, and while there are people on both sides, one comment from Frazer Walton, a member of the Kingman Park Civic Association, is worth particular attention: “I absolutely support using public funds. I absolutely support seeing millionaires come to the city, so they can pay some of these taxes for us.” That is absolutely not how taxes work and D.C. officials haven’t even released consulting-firm numbers about how they pretend they will, and it makes the case better than I can that D.C. is better off using that money for its education budget, clearly its schools aren’t doing the job they need to.
- Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings says if wannabe Orlando MLB team owner Rick Workman wants county land for a stadium, “I don’t think we should donate land to billionaires or to wealthy people. They, if anything, have to compensate the people for the land.” D.C. officials, see how it’s done, is that really so hard?
I, for one, am pleased to hear the owners of the Cavs and former Indians weighing in on the significant risk that using tax dollars paid disproportionately by the general public to subsidize a football stadium could bring.
I’ll concede it is a bit disappointing that their concern seems mainly to be that such funding could potentially impact how much tax money also paid disproportionately by the general public remains available for THEM when, inevitably, they decide it is time for more welfare for billionaires…
but this is America in 2025, after all… and we have to take the (microscopic) theoretical victories where we can.
Thanks for thinking of the little people, boys. Even if it wasn’t for very long.
I don’t know if this technically qualifies as news for this site, but WWE just announced the 2026 installment of Wrestlemania will not be held in New Orleans, as previously announced, it will be held in Las Vegas, which hosted the 2025 installment. It was announced New Orleans will host a “future” Wrestlemania.
I bring it up because this seems like a good opportunity for owners/beneficiaries of the Superdome to start asking for taxpayer funded improvements citing the loss of a major event. There is also the possibility WWE received a financial incentive from Las Vegas to bring the event back to Las Vegas for a second consecutive year, negating economic benefit from hosting the event.
Get your act together, Cleveland. There are so many wrestling events looking for domes to host. Don’t be left out.
From what I can see from news reports, one main reason WWE decided to move Wrestlemania to Vegas was because a lot of its key executives live there. Good luck competing for that, Cleveland.
New Orleans will now get “Money in the Bank” instead of WM XLII, with a (possible) future WM date & a few UFC cards as a consultation prize
Don’t kid yourself. It’s because they can make more money in Vegas. It’s *always* about making more money. BTW Cleveland Browns Stadium hosted SummerSlam last summer. Why? Because the State paid WWE to host it there. It’s not the stadium. They’d hold Wrestlemania in a Walmart parking lot if that brought in the most money.
This wrestlemania in Vegas was logistically the best in modern history. All the facilities are walking distance, and the non WWE events were close enough for a cheap uber ride.
That being said I also heard that the subsidy Vegas gave them covered more then their payroll for the weekend. Other cities are going to have to really bring a lot to the table cuz Vegas has really positioned themselves to be a de facto home of Wrestlemania.
One clarifying note — in the DMV area, state income taxes are paid based on where you reside, rather than the location you work. This has historically been a way to steer money out of DC (because lots more people commuted in than commuted out).
So, and while the first half of his quote is unambiguously, uh, bad, the second half may be suggesting that players are more likely to live in DC if their facilities are there (which is to say, ignoring that current players are more likely to live in Potomac or MacLean than Landover).
Yeah, I find it hard to picture enough Commanders players living in the district to put a dent in that $7.5 billion expense with their income taxes. Especially since the NFL season is only five months long — does D.C. tax code pro-rate income tax on how many months of the year you live in a jurisdiction?
As I recall, most of the players live near the practice facility, which is in Ashburn, VA, not far from Dulles Airport.
I think I’d live near the practice facility, too – since that’s where they work “most” of the time.
Why live near a venue that you are at essentially 8 times a year (it’s more than that, I know – but still…).
Unless practice facility and stadium are in the same location (or near enough).