Missouri Doesn’t Need Stadium Subsidies. It Needs a Free Market.
When the government uses its power to benefit a select few, it abandons its responsibility to protect a fair, competitive market. It ceases to be a referee and becomes a partner in cronyism.
As lawmakers consider a special session to revisit stadium funding for the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs, one thing is clear: billionaires don’t need taxpayer help.
A year ago, Jackson County voters sent a strong message by rejecting a stadium sales tax. That wasn’t a public relations hiccup — it was a principled stand.
Taxpayers said no to subsidizing private profits. The proper response isn’t to double down in Jefferson City — it’s to respect the role of government and stay out of the business of corporate favoritism.
When the government uses its power to benefit a select few, it abandons its responsibility to protect a fair, competitive market. It ceases to be a referee and becomes a partner in cronyism.
As Frédéric Bastiat once warned, “Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” That fiction becomes reality when billion-dollar sports franchises are handed sweetheart deals that working families and small businesses will never see.