Kansas Bends the Knee for the NFL

January 6, 2026·1 hr 7 min·5 clips

An economist calls the Chiefs' $1.8 billion stadium deal the most expensive public subsidy in American sports history.

A rooster crows. Bradbury uses the image to poke at a favorite stadium-deal argument: revenue can rise near a venue without the venue causing it. That distinction drives the segment. The host gives the economics professor room to slow things down, swapping booster optimism for a colder look at causation, taxes, and opportunity cost. Cobb County becomes the test case. Bradbury says he does not live inside the special tax district around the Atlanta Braves stadium, but still feels the effects through everyday local spending. His car repair bill does the work. The shop he uses pays higher stadium-related taxes, and those costs can drift to customers who never really chose to pay for a stadium. That is the part people miss. County leaders can point to money spent around the stadium, but the segment keeps pressing on what got counted, what got pushed aside, and what public needs lost out. The accounting sounds awfully convenient. A repair visit that would have happened anyway can get swept into a revenue story, making old economic activity look newly created by the stadium. Bradbury brings in Frederick Bastiat. The fallacy of the seen and unseen gives the conversation its frame, because stadium boosters can show off spending near the stadium while hidden costs stay out of sight. The critique is dry but sharp. This is not a rant against sports. It is a refusal to let stadium glamour blur who pays, who benefits, and who eats the trade-offs. The book plug fits the segment. Bradbury's forthcoming work, This One Will Be Different, False Promises and Fiscal Realities of Publicly Funded, is presented as an attempt to make those hidden costs easier to see. Then the show turns quickly. After thanking the guest, the conversation moves toward Major League Baseball's hot stove, from public finance to roster weather.

As heard by us

A sharp look at stadium subsidy logic and the costs it can hide.

Hang Up and Listen spends this episode on the economics of public stadium deals, with JC Bradbury laying out how the money claims around a new venue can sound tidy while pushing costs into places that are easier to miss.

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Why you'd press play

If stadium subsidies make your eye twitch, this one explains why.

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