Does the plan call for the team to own the stadium, but the taxpayers pay for it? I'm not sure where the redistribution of wealth happens without that. Do you think the 5 counties are getting a cut of ticket sales at Miller Park? Hint: They aren't. No, they aren't. But my point is that if the stadium isn't gifted to the team, then it's not wealth redistribution. With Miller Park, we bought a stadium to benefit the citizens of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, just like Milwaukee County did when they tried to lure a major league team here with the Braves (or Browns or Cardinals or whoever else they could entice). Publicly financed stadiums are not a new thing. Major league teams make money, but that's true of lots of industries that rely on public money. There's a whole slew of hot-button political issues where taxpayer funding buys stuff that is upsetting to one group or another. Mark Attanasio and Stuart Sternberg are going to be rich wherever they park their baseball teams. If the residents or elected officials in the Tampa area want to have baseball, the Rays have given them an artist rendering of how they can do it. That's not to say that Tampa Bay people should accept the offer. Twenty years into their franchise, the Rays don't seem to have a lot of local interest. Maybe they want a team, and maybe they don't. I just don't get the uproar over public funding of stadiums, especially from Brewers fans, who have watched games in publicly funded buildings their whole baseball lives.