Since the website's inception, one of Defector's core beats has been the warped dynamics of stadium construction. Perhaps no other genre of story collects and unites so many distinct strains of malfeasance, among them civic corruption, billionaire excess, and the ongoing privatization of every aspect of American life. Just this weekend, our Chris Thompson published an extremely thorough dissection of the Washington Commanders' new stadium boondoggle, which rivals those in Chicago for outrageousness. At this point, the myth—that publicly financing a billionaire owner's new stadium will bear fruit for the public doing the paying—is well established as bunk, so why do cities and states keep forking over money?
This is one of the discussion topics on this week's episode of Nothing But Respect. Harry and I were joined by Ben Schneider, urbanist and writer of the forthcoming book The Unfinished Metropolis, to talk stadium financing stuff, why the best sports rivalries correlate with train corridors, and the parallels between how urbanists and basketball fans interact online.
You can find Nothing But Respect in Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast app you use. Thanks for listening!
