No Government-Funded Bowls

After a nine-year delay – and at least $400,000 in tax money down the drain – state leaders are once again reviving the idea of bringing a government-subsidized college football bowl game to Charleston, S.C.

According to The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier, “organizers of the proposed Legends Bowl, which would be played at The Citadel’s Johnson Hagood Stadium beginning in December 2014, held a meeting of community leaders Friday in an effort to build momentum for the idea.”

“The bowl would pair teams from the Sun Belt and Mid-American conferences, be televised on the NBC Sports Network and bring an annual economic impact of about $6 million to the Lowcountry,” the newspaper reported.

Nine years ago S.C. Speaker Bobby Harrell – then chairman of the House Ways and Means committee – told the Associated Press the game would bring in “as much as $48 million.”

Wait … how does a number shrink like that over nine years?

Perhaps Harrell was calculating economic impact the same way he calculates his campaign reimbursements. Perhaps the “organizers” of this event took note of the attendance at Washington, D.C.’s RFK Stadium last year when a similar bottom-feeder bowl matchup drew fewer than 18,000 fans.

Beyond the dollars and cents, the state’s political landscape has also changed since lawmakers approved money in the FY 2004-05 state budget to land what was then referred to as the “Palmetto Bowl.”

For starters, there is a growing sense that subsidizing college football games is not a core function of government. In 2004 “Republicans” could still get away with proposing these things in a vacuum. There was no true fiscal conservative movement back then. In fact even fiscally “conservative” former Gov. Mark Sanford supported spending taxpayer funds for the “Palmetto Bowl” effort – although he disagreed with the manner in which state lawmakers funded it.

Hell this website’s founding editor Will Folks – then a spokesman for Sanford – actually referred to a bowl game grant as a “worthwhile investment.”

Yikes …

Needless to say, we’ve become infinitely wiser in the intervening years. In fact the editorial position of this website holds that any higher education expense – especially cash earmarked for athletic endeavors affiliated with higher education – represents an unnecessary government expenditure.

Oh, and speaking of such expenses Johnson Hagood Stadium – which would host this so-called “Legends” Bowl – recently underwent a $42 million renovation in which the 21,000-seat facility was equipped with skybox suites and a club-level lounge complete with “wood-paneled bars” and “flat screen televisions.”

How nice …

No matter what the promised “economic return” is, and no matter how “worthwhile” this investment is purported to be – it is not the job of South Carolina taxpayers to subsidize college football games. Accordingly, while we welcome a bowl game to South Carolina’s Lowcountry with open arms – and oppose the ridiculous NCAA boycott of the Palmetto State over the Confederate flag flap – we reject any effort on the part of state or local governments to fund such an effort.

If the “organizers” of this event think they can turn a profit by inviting Arkansas State and Bowling Green to play a bowl game in Charleston, S.C., they should knock themselves out.