In 1998, Arizona rolled out the red carpet for the Diamondbacks. The team’s debut season came with a brand-new stadium, Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field), built with a whopping $238 million in public funds from Maricopa County taxpayers. There was no public vote. There was no true accountability. And there were plenty of big promises: jobs, economic growth, urban revitalization.

Now, nearly three decades later, we’re still waiting on those promises. Unbelievably, the Diamondbacks are back asking for even more. Along with American Economic Liberties Project, Sports Fans Coalition sent a letter to AZ lawmakers highlighting the faults with this deal and urging them to reject the proposal.

Washington, D.C. is on the verge of one of the worst sports stadium boondoggles in American history and Sports Fans Coalition, along with a coalition of local activists, are blowing the whistle. 

The proposed deal to bring the Washington Commanders back to the RFK site is nothing short of a massive public handout to a private equity billionaire. It’s $2.2 billion in giveaways to a team owned by a man worth $9.8 billion. We’re talking rent-free land, a stadium exempt from property and sales taxes, and development rights that could enrich the owner to the tune of $27 billion over 90 years. All this while basic city services are being slashed in the D.C. budget.

This isn’t just a bad stadium deal. It’s a once-in-a-generation wealth transfer from working families to Wall Street; a billionaire’s playground funded by the very residents who are being pushed out of their neighborhoods.