---------- From: Tom Lehman Sent: Thursday, May 13, 1999 8:53 AM To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Baseball
NPR-WCPN is reporting this morning that the Jacob's family are putting the Cleveland Indians up for sale.
The Indians have one of the nicest newest baseball ballparks in the country. Named Jacob's Field or the "Jake" after the above mentioned family of wealthy real estate developers. Paid for by taxpayers money and a particularly well named sin tax i.e. tax the poor for the amusement of the rich!
Meanwhile, white flight and or tax avoidance continues to propel residents of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County into moving to the surrounding counties in big numbers. Hey, everybody loves pro-baseball and pro-football the only problem is nobody wants to pay for it.
You often hear a lot of big talk about the wonderful economic benefits of pro-sports. I doubt if any of these claims of economic gain would hold up to real scrunity. Most of these claims I think can be traced to the TV, radio and advertising crowd who benefit directly from advertising dollars spent; and in Cleveland's case the media market isn't big enough to pay the revenues the teams need to support teams lifestyle or teams' owner's lifestyles.
It's kind of funny in a way---the Jacob's family---have been big in pushing sprawl into the surrounding counties.
Your email pal,
Tom L.
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