Recent Merger of PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf This put an end to a long battle between the two that was typically framed as a struggle between pure and just American values and brutal economic, political and even murderous forces. rice field. Many linked LIV supporters to 9/11 and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The overwhelming financial power of billionaires backing the LIV seemed to ultimately make the PGA leadership unable to refuse. But while many are tired of the effort of “”sports washSaudi Arabia’s bank account, this foreigner break-in is not the beginning of sports outrage.
Golf courses have historically been off limits. In the south he flourished secluded golf courses throughout the 1950s. private clubs continued to exclude Until recently, women, people of color, and religious minorities.
Golf courses are also causing environmental destruction across the country. They treat the grounds with tons of toxic pesticides and fertilizers to maintain the lawns manicured with giant lawn mowers that spew pollution. Vast amounts of water help carry chemicals into aquifers and wetlands.
Communities hungry for green space and affordable housing see these carefully manicured acres segregated for use only by those who can afford it. Both public and private golf courses impose significant costs on where they operate, and those costs are rarely fully absorbed by players.
Golf courses rarely pay their fair share of taxes either. Especially in California, many enjoy special tax breaks that allow them to pay a small portion of the proportional burden borne by neighboring properties.
The Los Angeles Country Club, where the US Open starts Thursday, is a terrible example. It is the beneficiary of the provisions of the State Constitution. Limit property taxes on golf courses In addition to the rest granted by the State of California, notorious proposition 13. The approximately 300-acre site, among the most expensive properties in the area, is valued at approximately $18 million for tax purposes. This is true even though the median home price in the area is $2 million.
If there were hundreds of houses in the club, the valuation would easily multiply by a factor of 30. Even if they never set foot on the course, Southern Californians are effectively undertaking the continued operation of the course.
It’s just the beginning of disproportionate public investment in sports.Los Angeles County operates 20 public golf courses, the largest such system in the country. California’s public golf courses occupy enough land to build 375,000 homes in moderate density, according to the Bureau of Legislative Analysis. 2022, parliamentary committee kills Bill to make housing development a little easier part of that vast site.
The millions of Americans who watch and play sports have the right to do so. But the truth is, all Americans are paying the price to keep golf courses operating across the country. Many of them are probably free to choose to undertake environmental degradation, dedicate millions of acres of precious land to very narrow and exclusive uses, or subsidize their use with huge tax cuts. I don’t think so. Does that American have a choice?
The merger of LIV and PGA suggests that golf is big business. So why subsidize? Let them absorb the true cost that the golf course imposes on the community. If local governments want to keep public courses affordable for low-income people, they should at least tax private courses at a fair rate to make that possible.
For example, communities typically don’t subsidize polo, which may be one reason it’s nearly extinct in the United States. Perhaps golf has broader support, interest and persistence than polo. The mega-merger of LIV and PGA suggests that will be the case, at least for the time being, and that Big Golf still has a lot of money. If so, it’s time for American taxpayers to stop subsidizing.
Ray Brescia is a law professor at Albany Law School.this is Adapted from an article in Ohio Law Journal, “Course Correction: Abolition, Grand Strategy, and Lawsuits Against Golf”
