Taxpayers get hosed again

Delaware County is getting a professional soccer team and a $115 million stadium that can accommodate 18,500 fans. Alright you jokers. No more snide remarks about how the soccer team will be lucky to get 500 fans in the seats.

The problem with the stadium deal is the money taxpayers will have to kick in because politicians want free tickets and a plaque with their names on it.

Delaware County taxpayers will get stuck with a $30 million bill. Pennsylvania taxpayers will have to come up with $47 million. And the Delaware River Port Authority is kicking in $10 million. Why is the port authority funding a soccer stadium? Isn't there a bridge somewhere that need replacement or repair?

The rest will come from private funds. Once the stadium is built, somebody will get rich while taxpayers continue to pay for the stadium long after the soccer team folds and moves away.

This isn't Barcelona. Professional soccer has fallen flat on its face in the U.S. and there's no reason to believe anything has changed with the Pennsylvania soccer deal.

Rick Eckstein, a professor of sociology at Villanova University, has written a book about how taxpayers get fleeced when politicians and their rich pals get public funding for sports stadiums.

The book is "Public Dollars, Private Stadiums: The Battle over Building Sports Stadiums."

Stadium promises never pay off, according to Eckstein.

"I have been studying and writing about publicly financed stadiums for more than 10 years and cannot name a single stadium project that has delivered on its original grandiose economic promises, although they do bring benefits to team owners, sports leagues and sometimes players," Eckstein wrote in a recent op-ed piece.

Read more about the soccer stadium in The Delaware County Daily Times.