State and municipal governments have invested heavily in professional sports teams with payback coming only via economic activity from their games being played.

State and municipal governments have invested heavily in professional sports teams with payback coming only via economic activity from their games being played. From the state's point of view, they're protecting their investment and trying to get it generating revenue again. Of course these "investments" in sports teams by state and local governments are about as logical as investing in lottery scratch off tickets but politicians love getting their governments entangled with the finances of the local pro sports team and being able to boast to sports loving voters that they're the reason why the town has a team.