This morning, Mecklenburg County Commissioners voted 5-4 to spend millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to subsidize a very wealthy family’s pursuit of a potentially extremely lucrative professional soccer team. The county won’t own the team, so those profits won’t go to the county. But they will own the stadium that those funds will build. Consequently, the property won’t be subject to property taxes. The county will be on the hook for major renovations to the stadium in years 11 and 21. They’ll pay a quarter of the cost but only have use of the stadium 14 days a year. It’s a terrible deal.
And it’s one that commissioners, who are supposed to represent Mecklenburg County residents’ interests, voted for.
Tomorrow, the City of Charlotte will vote on the plan. I hope that they see more clearly than their county counterparts what an awful deal this is for taxpayers.
