Professional sports franchises love to take resources from the public while promising, but not giving, much in return.
Teams have taken billions in welfare from the public for stadium financing and stadium construction in the form of land, subsidies, payments and tax breaks. The New York Yankees are one team that benefited when they built their new stadium, gaining 25 acres of public park land in the Bronx, near poor neighborhoods that rely on the park.
At the time, the Yankees announced they would start a foundation to distribute $40 million to the affected neighborhoods.
However, an expose by The New York Times found that much of the money has gone to rich areas in the Bronx, and not the poor areas directly around Yankee Stadium.
The summary of the investigation:
Ten years later, however, an examination of the fund’s public financial records and interviews with community members and a former administrator of the fund show that it has operated with little oversight or public accountability, neglecting those who live near the stadium and instead sending money to other, often wealthier parts of the Bronx that were not affected by the construction.
The fund also regularly donates to organizations with which it shares common board members. And although the Yankees provide $35,000 a year to cover operating expenses, the fund in 2011 began to allocate 10 percent of the grants it awards to cover its own “additional administrative costs.” Those costs have never been publicly explained.
Many Bronx organizations say they have benefited greatly from the fund. But they are generally not in neighborhoods around the stadium. Of the $6.8 million distributed by the fund between 2008 and 2015, the last year for which records are available, only 30 percent — $2 million — went to charities occupying the same ZIP code as Yankee Stadium or four bordering ZIP codes.
Make sure to read the whole piece to get a sense of just how little the Yankees’ foundation has done for the community, instead choosing to enrich the wealthy.
Professional teams will always promise to help their communities if it means they’ll get an easier or cheaper route to building a new stadium. Just don’t expect them to follow through on those promises.
