Forum.RttP{Red Sox players and sports players over payed.}

In the case of the New England Patriots, Bob Kraft pretty much BORROWED the money. He is technically leasing the field from the state of Massachusetts. So you should all know what you are talking about before you start bitching. I don't know how other states do it, and I don't care.

You also need to take into account that the Boston Red Sox have not taken a dime of public money, so why are people talking crap like that? The Patriots certainly don't gouge for parking prices.

There is a trickle down economy for sports teams, and the money the state makes by taxing the players (both home and visiting) brings a lot of money back to the state, but I doubt any of you were smart enough to think of that either. Besides that, surrounding businesses make TONS of money off of these teams. I was at a bar last night watching the game with at least 300 other people. On Wednesday nights at this bar, there is nobody, EVER. Yet they had to cut people off at the door while people trickled in and out. They made TONS of money off of last night and a bunch of other nights in the playoffs. Now I wasn't there, but I am willing to bet that just about every other bar in all of New England were the same way. Then we have the stores. One store sold over 1100 WS Champs tshirts today at 20 bucks a pop. Do the math. That's TWO HOURS of "work."

For one, we have parking around Fenway, NONE of which is owned by the team. NONE. If it was, ticket prices would probably be lower. I think parking prices are fucking ridiculous, but that's life in Boston, which is a super huge city to begin with. I parked somewhere downtown for two hours once and paid 20 bucks. So don't say it's just because of sports, because it's not.

Second, ticket prices. Boston has the highest ticket prices in Major League Baseball. They also have the smallest stadium and the second highest payroll. Do the math and figure it out. And guess what, they sold out EVERY SINGLE GAME this year. People paid over $10,000 for tickets to the World Series on the streets. Not just the rich people, your average Joe Sports Fan.

But you know what? The end result was that the Boston Red Sox just won a World fucking Series. They can raise ticket prices by 10 bucks on each ticket and still sell out EVERY SINGLE GAME, and it's going to be the middle and lower class people going. It's cheaper for me to drive to Toronto to go to a Red Sox game then it is to go to one in Boston. Same thing with Baltimore and even Spring Training. I went to three spring training games this year, flew down, stayed in a hotel for three nights, spent $300 bucks. It would probably cost me 100 bucks to get the same seats in Fenway Park, and that's just one night.

The bottom line is that the reason tax dollars get thrown at sports teams is for these EXACT reasons. They don't do it for the sake of having a nice shiny stadium, they do it because it makes fiscal sense, and that is the undesputable truth.