Comment Re:There are more french film than you would think (Score 1) 314
Which kind of proves the point: If the material is any good, it will succeed and wont need artificial state support.
The same could be said of American sports franchises, which receive billions of tax dollars, mostly as stadium subsidies. What the French are doing is stupid, but America is no better.
Not exactly the right analogy.
What the Americans are doing with state and local government and sports franchises comes down to scarcity of supply. There are only a finite number sports franchises within any given professional sports league, and beyond a certain point the talent level is diluted and the overall entertainment value and ticket sales goes down. There are any number of American cities and states that would love to host X sports franchise. A successful pro sports team can bring millions of dollars tax revenue or more to a locale directly, and provide a much bigger indirect boost to the city in business growth and prestige. (See: Oklahoma City after they wooed the NBA SuperSonics / now the Thunder away from Seattle.)
The sports teams realize the benefits they provide just by being there. And they trade those benefits for sports arenas, tax breaks, and other concessions from the locale. If a city gets bitter or bored of supporting the team, they can and will pack up and move elsewhere.