The Chris Moeller Archives

The Kansas City Royals are more cunning in their front office than they are on the baseball diamond. Kansas City Sports Radio 810 WHB reports that, of the $17 million the club has collected in tax subsidies over the last 5 years earmarked specifically for stadium repairs and upkeep, only 9% has been spent to that purpose. The rest has gone to such things as employee salaries, security, and-- get this-- towards paying their payroll taxes. Yes, the Kansas City Royals, a team that has managed only one winning season in the last 19, and has managed to finish better than 4th or 5th place in a 5-team division only twice since 1995 (third, both times), has found a way to use taxpayer money to pay their taxes.

This report is stunning for two reasons: 1) Team officials obviously feel there's not an effective auditing system in place through which this behavior would get noticed-- either that or just that nobody would care, and 2) a radio station broke a news story.

---

Racism is usually to blame when we read these stories about the folly of having these "multi-millionaires" representing the United States on the Olympic Men's Basketball team. Curiously, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander is not questioning multi-millionaire Roger Federer's motivation to win the Gold Medal in Men's Tennis. The U.S. Olympic Committee has the prerogative to replace our professional basketball players with amateur (read: future professional) players. It might even make the games more competitive and interesting. It will just render the results of the games meaningless when the best players in the world are sitting at home.