Taxpayers already spend millions to build minor league ballparks. Sen. Richard Blumenthal thinks they should financially support the teams, too.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.) picked the perfect place to pitch a taxpayer-funded bailout for minor league baseball: A stadium that taxpayers already paid $66 million to build.
But now, Blumenthal says, more must be given to those who have already received so much. During a Monday press conference at Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford, Connecticut, Blumenthal said he would push for Congress to send $500 million to minor league clubs that are “on the verge of bankruptcy.”
“Minor league baseball is in peril,” Blumenthal said, according to the Hartford Courant.
“We need to come to their aide,” he said. “We did it for restaurants, theater, live music. Baseball deserves it as much.”
Blumenthal’s not wrong about the financial problems that plague some minor league teams, but that’s hardly a compelling reason for taxpayers to pick up the cost—especially when Blumenthal and others in Congress have opposed efforts by the baseball industry to address those issues privately.
reason.com/2021/05/04/a-minor-league-baseball-bailout-would-be-a-major-mistake/