Zirin on Bad Sports

Listening to Dave Zirin talk about his new book on how sports owners rip off taxpayers and fans--I know just about zilch about sports but I know a bit about ripping off taxpayers and I think  he's hypnotic.  A couple of loose points:

• Go to blasted city after blasted city where the urban infrastructure has been reduced to a heap of rust nd rubble, what do you find?  Got it--a spanking new sports stadium,paid for by taxpayers.

• Can it be that sports finance taught us how to do bank bank bailouts?  Compute: you've got a huge public problem--you solve it by transferring public money to to private pockets.  Works for the Redskins, works for Goldman Sachs.

• Hurricane Katrina: laughable levee system, derisory relief facilities, so what is the one facility that can accommodate the refugees--got it: a sports stadium.

Haven't read a sports book for a long time but I think this one goes on the list.