The Cleveland Cavaliers and specifically the owner Dan Gilbert are going all out to get a ring. And apparently, the only way to get a ring these days is to absorb as much luxury tax as Dan Gilbert can take. Oh wait, Gilbert is worth over $2 Billion, my bad.
But it’s not all bad as it seems. Yes they’re stacking contracts that are summing up to way above the cap limit but it’s okay. According to the New York Times, the Cavs revenue increased by nearly $70 Million. So it’s all good.
Gilbert made a splendid pile of cash off the Return. According to Sports Business Daily and Forbes, the Cavaliers’ revenue jumped by $67 million last season, while team salaries increased by just $15.2 million.
But here’s the interesting thing, even though Gilbert has billions in the bank. He uses taxpayers money to push through referendums and as you may have seen in John Oliver’s piece on stadiums, the people of Cleveland will pump $262 Million in arena improvements. And it’s not just for the Q. The Browns and Indians will get some of that $.
In the off-season, Gilbert dug his fingers into another pile of money, this one made up of taxpayer dollars. A year earlier, Gilbert and his fellow sports billionaires here — Larry Dolan, who owns the Indians, and Jimmy Haslam, who owns the Browns — had worked together to push through a referendum that extended a countywide “sin tax” on cigarettes, beer and liquor.
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.
The people have Cleveland have given nearly a Billion dollars and I bet if you ask them, they probably don’t even know about it.
