according to paul fagan, they threatened to buy back the team and sell it to a wealthier city like las vegas or seattle if there were no plans to build a new arena. the governor s office estimates that the loss of tax revenue generated by the franchise would amount to $419 million over 20 years, with walker arguing that it s cheaper to keep them. the deal raised some eyebrows as john hams, a minority owner of the team, serves as finance chairman of the walker campaign and recently donated $150,000 to a pro walker superpac. but fear of losing the team also has walker forming some unlikely partnerships. current bucs owners are contributing $150 million for the complex. and lazry happens to be a major fundraiser for hillary clinton. and herb coal, a democrat from wisconsin, chipped in $100
million. and much like walker s more controversial proposals, this one passed with broad bipartisan support, but many economists are skeptical at how much the cities actually benefit by spending on sports facilities. economists at the college of holy cross found that the evidence of significant direct economic benefits from sporting events and franchises is lacking. sports may make a city happy, but they are unlikely to make a city rich. team pride may not be enough. as a local union leader said, the billionaire owners and the nba are blackmailing city and county leaders into bankrolling an arena in one of the nation s poorest and most segregated cities. it certainly sounds, dave, like bla blackmail. give us the stadium or we take the team away. not only that, i don t endorse this, but previous
nationwide trend of slashing higher ed budgets. 48 states now spend less per student than before the recession. one of those states is wisconsin, which in its latest biannual budget saw a quarter million dollars cut from the university of wisconsin s system at the hands of clinton s potential opponent, governor scott walker. but walker has found a cause he thought worthy of this same amount of public money: a brand new arena for the milwaukee bucs basketball team. walker signed a bill of $250 million over 20 years for the project. but that figure balloons to $400 million. why would walker, who is running his campaign based on fiscal conservatism, would spend so much in taxpayer money on a fancy new stadium bringing criticism from the right? well, because the nba demanded it.