It's relocation day here in Seattle and the dialogue opened may prove to be valuable. One such idea involves a tax, but it's hard to see how the citizens of Washington state bristle at this plan like they would a typical tax plan. Instead, funding to bring an NBA or NHL team to Seattle could come from a tax on visiting athletes, and the plan has seen success before in other states.
The Seattle Times had the details on the plan, which came about as a movement to bring the NBA back to Seattle resurfaced this week, along with the same movement to bring the NHL to the city.
The coalition plans to discuss the merits of a jock tax that would require visiting professional athletes to pay state income tax for each game in the state of Washington. The funds from the tax would help finance construction of a new facility or renovation of an existing one for an NBA team.
A similar tax in Los Angeles netted the city $102 million dollars. I'm struggling to find anything wrong with scraping from visiting athletes to pay off our own arena. Count me in for this plan.