Tom Tomorrow points out this L.A. Times story about Cincinnati county commissioner Todd Portune’s lawsuit against their NFL team :

In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, Portune alleges that the Bengals conspired to “shake down” the citizens of Hamilton County by demanding a new stadium in the mid-1990s, and then failing to deliver a winning team. He accuses Mike Brown of creating a “false crisis” by claiming that he didn’t have enough money for quality players ? when, in fact, the National Football League’s salary cap would have prevented him from boosting his payroll significantly, no matter how much cash was rolling in.

Harvard law professor Paul Weiler goes further, calling public subsidies of sports stadiums “truly, truly evil” because the owners pocket most of the profits, leaving taxpayers with little economic benefit and often, not even a winning team. “It’s totally a lie when anybody says a city or county is getting a good deal [from building a stadium],” said Weiler, who has written a book on the topic, “Leveling the Playing Field.”

Public money subsidizing a sports team? None of the profits going back to the city? Why does this all sound so familiar?