A new Bloomberg Businessweek article sheds light on tax subsidies that benefit college athletic programs, including hundreds of millions in funding for stadium construction and sports departments’ exemptions from taxes on ticket, television and other income generated by their stadiums.
UMBC’s Dennis Coates, professor of economics, argues that college sports may not be the best use of tax exemptions. “When one thinks of charity, they don’t think of charity flowing to the head football coach of a big state university.” Questioning municipal financing for stadiums Coates notes, “Using the borrowing power of the state and tax-exempt interest to build stadiums for sporting events isn’t the real purpose of the university, either.”
