Stupid Is As Stupid Does

It appears that Canadian taxpayers are just as stupid as American taxpayers.

TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays agreed to buy SkyDome, the team's ballpark, for about $21.24 million.

The 50,000-seat stadium, which opened in 1989, cost about $375 million to construct and was mostly funded by taxpayers. The Blue Jays, who are owned by Rogers Communications, will acquire the ballpark from Sportsco International LP, a Chicago-based group of investors who bought SkyDome out of bankruptcy court in 1999 for about $74 million.

So let's review. Taxpayers agree to build a stadium for the multi-millionaire owners of a sports franchise in order to keep the team from leaving town (I'm assuming this was the threat levied against the City of Toronto; it worked for Mike Brown in Cincinnati). The pricetag: $375 million.

Now let's fast-forward 15 years. The multi-millionaire owners (yes, they're still multi-millionaires) decide to buy the stadium to improve their revenues. The pricetag: $21.24 million. Wow, now that's a bargain.

The taxpayers really got some bang for their buck with that $375 million dollar investment.