The NFL saves the United States

As many folks know, I don’t support using public money for funding sports stadiums.  But a thought has occurred to me that may make me rethink this position, at least slightly.

Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the United States will dissolve in 2010.  Mr. Panarin argues that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war  which will collapse  the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July,  the U.S. will break into six pieces, each under the control of a different part of the planet.

In case you were wondering where you would end up, I have placed a copy of a map of his ideas from the Wall Street Journal.

This may sound crazy but he also predicted the dissolution of the Soviet Union.  And in the Russia, they are taking him very seriously.  You can read more about his ideas here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html

As an American, my immediate reaction is that it is silly to think that we would let our country dissolve.  But it is even more interesting to ask what is it that holds this country together.  I have had the privilege of seeing a few different parts of the country and I have to say that we are a very diverse country.  We do speak the same language and we do have many of the same stores but as we have manufactured less and less, we are less reliant on other parts of the country for goods.  So economically, we are not that interdependent.

So what is it that keeps our country together? The Soviet Union broke apart.  Great Britain broke apart.  Czechoslovakia broke apart.  Why not the United States?  What is it that has kept us together?  Obviously one answer is that we did have some states try to leave but we had a vastly bloody war to keep the United States intact.  But that was a hundred years ago, out of the memory of today’s people.  So what keeps us together?  Well that is where the NFL comes in.  Professional sports are a big part of the glue that holds this country together. I have a connection to Chicago and New York and Miami and LA and Dallas (damn Cowboys…I’m still mad from a decade or two ago…) because of professional sports. February 1st, millions of us across this country will eat chili, drink beer, get together with friends, dress in silly outfits and watch football.    Probably nothing pulls us together like our mutual love of football. Hockey, baseball, basketball and college sports also contribute to this to a lesser extent. And it is interesting to think about what our country would be like without this shared experience to draw people together across our country.

I would much rather have public ownership of sports teams. That way all the benefits of investments would accrue to the public, as well as intangible benefits.   But I have to admit there are public benefit to our sports teams that we should consider when thinking about public investment in sports stadiums.

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