Over the next 20 years, taxpayers in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County will sluice $262 million into improvements for the city’s arenas and stadiums. This straitened city has already pumped $800 million into its sports stadiums.

Sweet deals for team owners are a distinguishing feature of pro sports capitalism. Costs are socialized, and profits remain private. Cleveland’s owners argue that this is only just: The stadium and the arena are publicly owned, and like any landlord, the city and the county should look after repairs and improvements.

Their logic does not apply more broadly. The team owners took control of the process of auctioning off naming rights for these public stadiums. The Browns sold their stadium’s rights for $100 million to FirstEnergy Corporation; the Indians will get $58 million over 16 years from Progressive Insurance; Gilbert’s home loan business paid a terrific sum to Gilbert’s team to name the place Quicken Loans Arena.

The owners shared not a penny with the hard-pressed city.

The Cleveland Indians have their hearts set on a new sound system. The Browns’ Haslam — whose truck-stop company, Pilot Flying J, just last year paid a $92 million fine to avoid a federal fraud prosecution — has compiled a list of improvements to be funded out of the public purse.