Why do sports teams and their need for stadiums dominate the political climate?

Welcome to Ask a Libertarian with Reason's Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch. They are the authors of the new book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America.

Go to http://declaration2011.com to purchase, read reviews, find event dates, and more.

On June 15, 2011 Gillespie and Welch used short, rapid-fire videos to answer dozens of reader questions submitted via email, Twitter, Facebook, and Reason.com. In this episode, they answer the question:

"Why do sports teams and their need for newer / better stadiums dominate the political climate of some states? Example: In MN we are about to have a state government shutdown because the budget can't be balanced. There is also pressure from the MN Vikings to have the state of MN and one city to pay for 2/3 of a 1.2 billion dollar stadium. I have read an article on Cato that stated public funded stadiums do not provide any return on investment for the tax payers dollars. If that is true, then why would politicians agree to fund a new stadium? Wouldn't it be in the best interest of the team to have a privately financed stadium? Doesn't giving taxpayer money for a new stadium increase the value of the team and thus increase the pocketbook of an already rich person?"

For the complete series, go to http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/10/ask-a-libertarian and Reason.tv's YouTube Channel at http://youtubecom/reasontv

Produced by Meredith Bragg, Jim Epstein, Josh Swain, with help from Katie Hooks, Kyle Blaine and Jack Gillespie.