Should taxpayers be on the hook for professional sports stadiums?

One of the arguments for bigger and better stadiums is that they draw in people and that means tax revenue on everything from food to clothing and other merchandise. For years, legislatures have been offering incentives such as tax breaks to help a team owner. The same goes for Hollywood producers wanting to film in certain states or municipalities.

Florida is no stranger to this situation, although lawmakers from both political parties have resisted so-called corporate welfare schemes in recent years.

Chris Hudson, the Florida state director of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group, says taxpayers should celebrate.

"I think the easiest key findings are that the return on investment, as indicated by the state, does not lead to a good investment for the taxpayer," Hudson tells OneNewsNow. "Americans for Prosperity argues that the case against tax incentives is that that is not the purpose of government."

The government, he says, is not the investor or our tax dollar for purposes that are not essential.

"Increasing the ability for large profiting stadium owners and team owners to generate profits off the backs of the taxpayers is not exactly what our founding fathers had in mind when they set forth our Constitution," he continues. "The bigger finding here is that there are other teams who have proven that if you utilize the free market, and if you put your capital and your ideas on the table and you work really hard you can profit just fine without the taxpayer."

For example, a soccer team and owner in Tampa would like to build their own stadium and pay for it themselves.

"They know that that means they get to keep all of the profit and it means that they do right by the taxpayer, and if you look to the city of Orlando, the same is true."

Still, people in favor of taxpayer incentives maintain that businesses and attractions will not come to a state if projects do not include public financing.

Others point to the revenue from retail establishments that pop up around stadiums. Those establishments also mean jobs. Hudson says those things are still possible without tax dollars.

"We did not fund Daytona International Speedway reimbursements and the Daytona 500 is still here," he explains. "They said we would not get an all-star game, they said we wouldn't get a Super Bowl, they said that we wouldn't get college bowl games, all of those things still hold true, but they come to Florida without our tax dollars now."

When it comes to films, Hudson says Florida is very hard to replicate.

"And the beauty of it is," he says, "we don't need to do that to bring jobs, tourists or other individuals to our state."