Baseball owners should keep taxpayer investment in mind
Re: “Kiszla vs. Saunders: Can greedy MLB find compromise to play ball in 2020?” June 9 commentary
Major League Baseball, team owners, and the players are having trouble coming together for the 2020 season. The debate about whether we will have baseball this summer is based on a financial argument.
Baseball has benefited greatly in the United States from the taxpayers footing the bill for teams’ ballparks through public funding. When Coors Field was originally built, tax payers funded the stadium with a 0.1 percent sales tax that paid $162 million. In 2017, The Rockies negotiated a 99-year lease on a piece of land next to Rockies Stadium.
Other cities have received similar public funding or favorable incentives from their host cities.
The MLB, team owners and players should take the public funding of their stadiums into consideration when discussing their next steps for the 2020 baseball season.
Team owners may be skilled at telling people that they are continuously losing money, but I don’t see any evidence of that as players are paid higher and higher salaries.
MLB runs a high risk of depriving America of a summer of baseball when America needs baseball the most.
With baseball fans being a captive audience for the foreseeable future, it makes little sense for Major League Baseball to skip the opportunity to play games and reach potential new fans.
Instead, the MLB risks alienating fans, which will result in fewer fans when baseball does come back. Play ball.
John Riley Campbell, Denver
Thankful for move to make vaccine more widespread
Re: “Vaccine bill advances amid fiery opposition,” June 8 news story
I was heartened by the actions of the legislators who are continuing to move the vaccination bill forward.
Thankfully, they are making decisions based on evidence and standing up to those who value feelings over facts.
The irony is that if or when a vaccine is found for COVID-19, this latter group, assuming it is all vaccines they avoid, will find itself protected by the herd immunity of those who partook of that which they are protesting.
Ricki Hadow, Denver
In August 1951, my younger sister was almost 3 years old and I was 4 when we were hospitalized at Children’s Hospital in Denver with polio. She had both bulbar and paralytic polio and was moved into an iron lung for a time before she died.
Fortunately, I recovered from right side paralysis with months of rehabilitation therapies.
My recovery was possible because of a team of medical professionals who risked their lives caring for those of us on the “polio wards.”
Sound familiar?
If a polio vaccine had been available, my parents would not have hesitated to use it to protect their children and to keep the community safe from this tragedy.
Barbara Van Buskirk, Denver
Two photos show contrast of consideration from two groups
Re: Front-page photo of vaccine protesters and page 2 photo of Black Lives Matter marchers
I was struck by the contrast of these two photos — one with protesters wearing no face masks and the second with most marchers wearing face masks.
This boils down to one thing for me: lack of consideration for others vs. consideration for others.
We are definitely living in strange times.
Judy Wolfe, Denver
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