"Don’t sign lease clauses based on team profits and loss, because the teams can cook the books however they want."The site issued that warning based on the new rumors of another Arizona Coyotes sale and the potential for more stadium subsidies on the heels of already-outrageous handouts last year.
But Schemes points out no city in American should still need this advice after hearing former Blue Jays exec and MLB President Paul Beeston say: “I can turn a $4 million profit into a $2 million loss and get every national accounting firm to agree with me.”
UPDATE: A really outstanding must-read from The Guardian makes the case that American cities continue to allow their own pillaging at the hands of rich franchise owners:
The story in Detroit has played out in almost every American metropolis, at least those that crave to be a “major-league” city. For decades, sports franchises have leveraged hometown pride and promises of economic spin-offs to garner billions in government handouts for stadium construction. Such megaprojects typically produce far fewer tangible benefits than advertised. And they siphon public funds away from other programmes. Still, extraordinarily wealthy franchise owners – a tiny group of athletic oligarchs – continue to bend American cities to their will.
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