RE: Places Where the NFL’s Raiders Could Play in 2019
That's an interesting situation for sure. I haven't been following it closely, but I did know the team was moving. I'm interested to see on what grounds the city is suing the team and NFL. I imagine it's because the old stadium isn't paid off yet and the team is leaving. Now Oakland likely doesn't have enough revenue to pay off the stadium.
I had a friend who did a Master Degree report on sporting stadiums and he found that the only ones where the city actually profits is car racing tracks, like NASCAR tracks. They have enough events throughout the year that they're able to make money on it, but all the baseball, football, soccer, and hockey stadiums are largely operating at a loss. It's tough to make all your revenue on 8 days per year (for football).
It seems like the teams could afford to buy their own stadiums as most of them are hauling in hundreds of millions in profit per year with none of that going to the city. Why pay for it yourself when you can have the taxpayers foot the bill though, right?!
That's a good point. In the U.S., baseball has the most games, and so I think most cities are glad to have those stadiums. We're talking about 1/2 of a full schedule of 162 MLB games being played at one's home stadium. Compare that with NFL football, though, in which a full season is 16 games, maybe with a few more for pre-season and playoffs. From the perspective of a city, a stadium is really a big investment for that few home dates. Some venues also can be used to host concerts, etc.