Marquette Sports Law Review Volume 1 Article 7 Issue 2 Spring Subverting the Internal Revenue Code in the "Game" of Sports Stadium Financing John D. Finerty Jr. Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw Part of the Entertainment and Sports Law Commons Repository Citation John D. Finerty Jr., Subverting the Internal Revenue Code in the "Game" of Sports Stadium Financing, 1 Marq. Sports L. J. 301 (1991) Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw/vol1/iss2/7 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. COMMENT SUBVERTING THE INTERNAL REVENUE CODE IN THE "GAME" OF SPORTS STADIUM FINANCING I. BACKGROUND: THE BATTLEGROUND OF STADIUM FINANCING In 1984, the late Edward Bennet Williams, owner of Major league Base- ball's Baltimore Orioles, announced he would not renew the team's lease at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.' This announcement set off a flurry of activity among public officials and business leaders in and around Baltimore - a city that remembers too well the damage to the local economy and civic pride caused by the loss of Baltimore's only other professional sports team, the National Football League (NFL) Colts.' As the story went: In a dramatic midnight exodus, (owner) Robert Irsay moved "his" Baltimore Colts out of Baltimore and into Indianapolis. The team's departure dealt a devastating financial blow to Baltimore's economy which, in 1984 alone, lost thirty million dollars in reve- nues, wages and business.