InsiderAdvantage has learned that two prominent state senators upset that professional football players are refusing to stand during the playing of the national anthem at National Football League games want to strike back. They want to send a message against what they call the NFL’s “permissiveness” by repealing a generous tax break in House Bill 951 that applies to an NFL stadium like Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz facility.
The state senators are garnering support for killing the section that eliminated sales taxes on tickets to major sporting events, including the Super Bowl to be held in Atlanta in 2019.
At the time H.B. 951 was debated and passed into law in 2016, several lawmakers from both parties highlighted various hidden costs of holding a major supporting event and argued that tax policy shouldn’t favor one type of sporting event over another. Several Republicans at the time especially wondered why the state was giving revenue away. Also speaking against the bill was Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, who pointed out that none of the estimated $400-500 million a Super Bowl would bring would be going to the neighborhoods surrounding the new Mercedes Benz stadium.
The two lawmakers who seek to throw a penalty flag on the NFL with this repeal effort believe they can gain significant support in both houses of the GOP-controlled General Assembly in 2018.
