Just Subsidize, Baby: The Raiders, A’s, and Las Vegas’s Taxpayer Sellout Schemes

“Just Subsidize, Baby: The Raiders, A’s, and Las Vegas’s Taxpayer Sellout Schemes,” Haman Nature (Jun 17, 2026), PFS member Adam Haman.

I’ve lived in Las Vegas for 16 years now, and I’ve been coming here regularly to play poker (and, just… play) for over 35 years. These days, I have a love/hate relationship with this town. Or, more accurately, Las Vegas is still awesome, but it was even better a decade or two ago.

One of the reasons it’s worse now has to do with professional sports.

Las Vegas loves to sell itself as the ultimate free-market playground — bright lights, big risks, no apologies. But it ain’t really so. It’s more like Las Vegas likes to sell itself… out.

For the last decade, Vegas has been prostituting itself to rich sports leagues and owners. It’s gross. In fact, it’s freaking embarrassing. And it’s become a taxpayer-funded feeding frenzy for billionaire team owners.

Welcome to the new era of “Vegas sports,” where the house always wins… as long as the house is backed by government subsidies, special tax deals, and political connections.

The Raiders Raid on Nevada’s Wallet

It started with the Oakland Raiders’ relocation to Vegas and the construction of Allegiant Stadium. Way back when the Raiders were popular and successful, owner Al Davis’s slogan was “Just win, baby!”

Now the team is owned by his son Mark, whose slogan may be more like “Just fleece the taxpayers, baby!”

When Mark decided to flee from Oakland, California (hard to blame him there), he looked east and found a city willing to whore itself out to bring the Raiders to town — good ol’ Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 2016, the Nevada legislature approved $750 million in public funding — the largest stadium subsidy in NFL history at the time — for a $1.9+ billion domed palace. That money came from hotel room tax bonds issued by Clark County.

The Raiders and the NFL kicked in the rest, but taxpayers got stuck with the long-term bill, including interest that balloons the real cost toward $1.3 billion over decades.

Clark County has already had to dip into reserve funds multiple times to cover bond payments. The team and the league made their usual rosy promises of massive economic windfalls. The usual consultant studies predicted jobs and tourism magic multipliers.

Reality has been much more mixed. The poorly chosen (and self-indulgent) site location causes traffic nightmares on game days, and screws up the parking situation for nearby casinos and other businesses.

It was a classic crony deal greased through a special legislative session. Small special interests gain at the expense of the rest of us.

Here Come the A’s — Another Subsidy Special

Now the Oakland A’s (owned by billionaire John Fisher) are following the same playbook. Their new ballpark on the former Tropicana Casino site is projected at $2 billion (up from initial $1.5 billion estimates), with $380 million in direct public subsidies plus tax credits, bonds, and infrastructure help.

Nevada lawmakers rushed through another special session in 2023 to make it happen. Critics (including sports economists) call it the standard “stadium grift.”

Studies consistently show these deals rarely deliver the promised net economic benefits — money gets redirected from education, roads, and other so-called “public” services to private sports empires.

It’s bad enough they steal from us, but do they have to make the cronyism this blatant? Yet here we are again, with Fisher’s team getting sweetheart treatment while locals foot indirect costs through taxes and opportunity losses.

The F1 Boondoggle: Construction Chaos and Lost Business

F1 was a great movie. Love Brad Pitt. But I hate, hate, hate Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. Promoted as a glamorous tourism coup, it has delivered months of construction disruption, road closures, and traffic hell for residents and small businesses.

Local shops and restaurants reported 30-40% drops in revenue during build-up and event periods. Some claimed losses in the millions. Lawsuits and petitions to “Stop F1” followed, with businesses citing public nuisance and blocked access.

This was cronyism through and through — a government-backed spectacle with heavy infrastructure involvement and detours that hammered off-Strip spots while big players reaped the branding benefits.

It’s betrayal of the public in shiny racing stripes as government bureaucrats sign away the city to create some racing video game facsimile. Disgusting.

A Better Way: T-Mobile Arena and the Golden Knights

Contrast that with the Vegas Golden Knights and T-Mobile Arena. Opened in 2016 for $375 million, it was funded entirely privately by MGM Resorts, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), and later partial ownership by team owner Bill Foley.

No taxpayer bailout, no special legislative handouts. Foley has publicly said tax dollars are better spent on public services than sports palaces.

The Knights arrived as an expansion team, built genuine local buzz, and turned the arena into a multi-purpose success without saddling residents with debt. It proves the market can deliver exciting sports and entertainment when crony incentives aren’t distorting things.

And maybe the karmic cosmic hockey gods agree. The Golden Knights have been hugely successful. In their first nine seasons in the league, they only missed the playoffs once, made it to the finals three times — hoisting the Stanley Cup one of those times!

And Now… NBA Expansion Rumors

The pattern shows no signs of stopping. The NBA Board of Governors voted in March 2026 to explore expansion franchises in Las Vegas and Seattle (potential start in 2028–29), with franchise fees projected at an eye-watering $7–10 billion each.

Multiple arena proposals have already surfaced — south Strip “Diamond Arena,” north Strip projects, downtown sites, and talk of upgrading T-Mobile with $300 million in private investment from Bill Foley.

While details on possible public financing are still emerging, the usual suspects (developers, team owners, and politicians) are lining up for tax incentives, land deals, infrastructure support, and special zoning.

In a city already stretched thin from prior stadium subsidies, this smells like the next chapter of crony capitalism: billionaires bidding huge sums for teams while quietly negotiating taxpayer-backed arenas and sweetheart location perks.

The Pattern Is Clear

Vegas is booming with pro sports — Raiders in Allegiant, Knights in T-Mobile, soon the A’s, the F1 spectacle, and potentially an NBA team.

The winners are team owners, developers, and connected insiders. The losers are everyday Nevadans whose taxes, hotel bills, and daily commutes subsidize billionaire playgrounds.

I hate when critics point to crap like this and shout, “These are the evils of capitalism!”

Wrong. With the exception of T-Mobile and the Golden Knights, this isn’t anything like a free market. It’s government picking winners, distorting incentives, and forcing the public to backstop private risks.

Real growth comes from voluntary investment, not political raids on the public treasury.

Naturally,

Adam