Nightline 11/29: Should the public pay for pro sports stadiums? [View All]

Broadcast should begin at approximately 1am EST. The following is from Nightline's daily email.


If you build it, will they come?

November 29, 2004

Building new sports stadiums. Is it fair to put the burden on taxpayers?


Today's broadcast:

I'll never try to match the standard Leroy set, but here's a sense of today's broadcast, which will follow Monday night football.

There's a raging dispute about how to fund huge new sports stadiums in cities around the country. The question: should public money be used because they are an economic boom, or is this simply a taxpayer rip-off?

Arlington, Texas voted on Election Day to put more than $300 million into a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys. Tomorrow, the Washington, D.C. City Council votes on public funding for a new stadium for the city's new major league team, The Washington Nationals. San Francisco is being asked to build a new stadium for the 49ers. Correspondent Jake Tapper reports.

Our guests: Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys; Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco; and Kevin Delaney, associate professor of sociology at Temple University and author of Public Dollars, Private Stadiums

Tom Bettag & the Nightline Staff
Nightline Offices
Washington, D.C.