Should the cost of building a new football stadium be borne by the people? Our state Legislature has approved $1 billion dollars in bonds to support billionaire owner Dan Snyder in building the stadium. This untold amount of money put on the backs of taxpayers is not a priority with them. There are better ways we should use our tax dollars to support the needs of the people of Virginia.
I recently sat down for an interview with Eric Flack of CBS WUSA9 to share my perspective on this. I told him how I had brokered a deal with former owner Jack Kent Cooke to build a stadium in Alexandria, until it was derailed for political reasons. Cooke was going to pay for the entire project, which is the way it should have been done. Virginia would have had the ownership transferred to its name twenty years after construction.
I encourage you to also watch the video interview on YouTube.
It is shocking, though not surprising, that no public hearings have been held nor any contemplated, for input.
A 2016 poll on the issue by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce showed only 46% of Virginians supported a football stadium in the Commonwealth and only 23% supported using tax dollars to make it happen.
When you examine the continuing needs going unmet in education, housing, evictions, crime, healthcare, and the list goes on; and being told by our leaders, “we don’t have the money”, the people have serious questions.
Stay tuned.