Andrew’s Analytics

For years, Brett Favre made a game about announcing his plans for the following fall. Last year, after he announced his retirement, and later his desire to play again, the Packers said enough and traded him off to the Jets. After retiring again, Favre may see some more action in the NFL as a Minnesota Viking. Favre plans on meeting with Vikings coach Brad Childress, and depending on the outcome of that conversation, may sign with the Packers rivals across the St. Croix.

As a longtime Packer fan who has lived in the Vikings tv market for the last 15 years, I gotta say “Who cares?”. For years, I enjoyed watching Favre play, but the last couple of years, he has been the epitome of what’s wrong with sports and the way we, as Americans, relate to them. It became an annual spring ritual in Wisconsin to speculate of Favre’s possible retirement, and after several years of this, it seemed to me that all of it was an attention grab by Favre. Just days ago, he gave an emphatic “NO”, when asked if he would play next year, but here we are again.

Another big story we have been hearing way too much about over the last week or so is that Alex Rodriguez may have done steroids in high school. I enjoy the watching a football game on a Sunday afternoon with my son as much as the next guy, but why do we pay so much attention to the minutae of these men’s lives when there is so much going on in the world? We have been fighting two wars for years now, we are in a deep recession, and we have a government that is not accountable to we the people who elected them. I’m not saying that we need to give up sports. I just we think we need a little perspective on the part they play in our lives.

Baseball season started earlier today, with the Braves taking on the Phillies. Next week, two new ballparks will be opening in New York City, one in Queens, and the other in the Bronx. New stadiums have been popping up all over the country in recent years, with most of them being financed by large taxpayer contribution. Are these new stadiums playgrounds for millionaire players and billionaire owners, or are they a vital part of a city’s infrastructure? Does Miller Park make Milwaukee a big league city, while Madison, a mere 75 miles to the west is thought of as a college town? It doesn’t end with baseball either. Several years ago Lambeau field in Green Bay underwent huge renovations, largely at taxpayer expense, and in Minneapolis, Zygi Wilf claims that tax money spent on a new Vikings stadium will stimulate the economy by providing jobs in the slow economy.

Then we get to Citi Field in Queens. Built to replace the 44 year old Shea Stadium, was paid for by bonds from the city. These bonds, however will be paid back with interest by the Mets. The city is covering about a fourth of the total cost by contributing to infrastructure improvement. An interesting part of the financing is in the naming rights. Citigroup will pay the Mets 20 million dollars per year to have their name affixed to the stadium. Citigroup, as you may recall, was a recepient 45 billion dollars in federal TARP money late last year, and congressmen from both parties are calling for the deal to be scrapped. Both Citigroup and the Mets are adamant that the deal will continue. Ironically, even when deals are privately negotiated for stadiums, taxpayers are still on the hook.

This whole debacle is emblematic of the 111th Congress’s and former President Bush’s lack of foresight. We gave nearly a trillion dollars to the financial sector to help get them back on their feet, and nobody who was writing the checks seemed to realize that Citigroup had the obligation of naming rights, or AIG owed its executives bonuses.  No one bothered to find out exactly what this money would be spent on.  Why don’t we start sending people to Washington who will watch out for our interests? Congress should be answering to “we the people”, and not the financial industry.

Illustration by Bill Nagel
www.towntown.blogspot.com