http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-nfl-oilers-a-case-study-in-corporate-welfare/ Ideas on Liberty Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:46:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-nfl-oilers-a-case-study-in-corporate-welfare/comment-page-1/#comment-29414 LeBron to Miami: Impact on the Houston Rockets « Lawrence Person's Futuramen Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:23:57 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/uncategorized/the-nfl-oilers-a-case-study-in-corporate-welfare/#comment-29414 [...] As far as James himself is concerned, I won’t say that the outraged vitriol is surprising (it is, after all, American professional sports in the 21st century, but I do think it’s misplaced. James made a professional business decision of where he could best win championships, and Cleveland lost out on entirely understandable and indeed totally rational criteria. Of course, if sports fans were rational, they wouldn’t develop an emotional attachment to athletically talented millionaires who just happen to be plying their trade in their city of choice in any particular year. (Cue Jerry Seinfeld’s rooting for laundry bit.) Some may think my attitude on James hypocritical given my loathing of Bud Adams, but there’s one key difference: to the best of my knowledge, James never received tens of millions of dollars in direct taxpayer subsidies before leaving town. [...] [...] As far as James himself is concerned, I won’t say that the outraged vitriol is surprising (it is, after all, American professional sports in the 21st century, but I do think it’s misplaced. James made a professional business decision of where he could best win championships, and Cleveland lost out on entirely understandable and indeed totally rational criteria. Of course, if sports fans were rational, they wouldn’t develop an emotional attachment to athletically talented millionaires who just happen to be plying their trade in their city of choice in any particular year. (Cue Jerry Seinfeld’s rooting for laundry bit.) Some may think my attitude on James hypocritical given my loathing of Bud Adams, but there’s one key difference: to the best of my knowledge, James never received tens of millions of dollars in direct taxpayer subsidies before leaving town. [...]

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