Using public funds to pay for a billionaire's playground for the rich and powerful as the Santa Clara Stadium Five is proposing, is so common in America that a book has been written about it : Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit, Revised and Expanded Edition
About the book
Field of Schemes is a play-by-play account of how the drive for new sports stadiums and arenas drains $2 billion a year from public treasuries
for the sake of private profit.
While the millionaires who own sports franchises have seen the value of their assets soar under this scheme, taxpayers, urban residents,
and sports fans have all come out losers, forced to pay both higher taxes and higher ticket prices for seats that, thanks to the layers of
luxury seating that typify new stadiums, usually offer a worse view of the action.
The stories in Field of Schemes, from Baltimore to Cleveland and Minneapolis to Seattle and dozens of places in between, tell of the
sports-team owners who use their money and their political muscle to get their way, and of the stories of spirited local groups - like
Detroit's Tiger Stadium Fan Club and Boston's Save Fenway Park! - that have fought to save the games we love and the public dollars our cities need.
This revised and expanded edition features the first comprehensive reporting on the recent stadium battles in Washington DC, New York City,
Boston as well as updates on how cities have fared with the first wave of new stadiums built in recent years.
Authors/Editors
Neil deMause is a Brooklyn-based journalist who writes regularly for the Village Voice, Extra!, and Baseball Prospectus and runs the stadium-watch
Web site fieldofschemes.com.
Joanna Cagan is a teacher and writer in New York City. She has written for numerous publications, including the Village Voice, the New York Times Magazine, and Interview.
Praise
"A thoughtful and comprehensive examination of the curious issue of love and money in sport." - Frank Deford, Senior Contributing Writer at Sports
Illustrated and author of The Entitled
"In exposing the template used by greedy owners and corrupt politicians, the authors have provided a great service for concerned public officials and fans who no longer have to sit in silence." - Christopher Keshock, NINE
"Field of Schemes is a superb work of investigative reporting and righteous indignation. The fan pays twice: once for the stadium and again for the ticket to get into the stadium. If enough fans read it, we could break this cycle." - Allen Barra, sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal and author of The Last Coach: A Life of Paul "Bear" Bryant
"This is as crystal clear as it gets. Field of Schemes shows exactly how your tax dollars end up in the pockets of sports team owners and players in our fake democracy." - Jim Bouton, author of Ball Four and Foul Ball
"A well-written and poignant analysis of America's stadium mess." - Andrew Zimbalist, Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics, Smith College, and author of In the Best Interests of Baseball? The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig
"If this book had been around for the Greeks to read, they would have learned that they should've billed Troy for the horse." - Molly Ivins, newspaper columnist, political commentator, and best-selling author
