The billionaire playbook: How US sports owners use their teams to avoid millions in taxes

Owners like Steve Ballmer can take the kinds of deductions on team assets — everything from media deals to player contracts — that industrialists take on factory equipment. That helps them pay lower tax rates than players and even stadium workers.

Credit: Lisa Larson-Walker/ProPublica. Photos: LeBron James (Meg Oliphant/Getty Images), Kawhi Leonard (Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images), Steve Ballmer (Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images)

by Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Ellis Simani, Pro-Publica

(July 8) – At a concession stand at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Adelaide Avila was pingponging between pouring beers, wiping down counters and taking out the trash. Her Los Angeles Lakers were playing their hometown rival, the Clippers, but Avila was working too hard to follow the March 2019 game.

When she filed taxes for her previous year’s labours at the arena and her second job driving for Uber, the 50-year-old Avila reported making $44,810. The federal government took a 14.1% cut.

Western media took gold in evidence-free allegations of Chinese Olympic spying

By JOSHUA CHO

The Washington Post‘s headline (1/20/22) seems to sum up why Western journalists saw no need to factcheck claims of Chinese cyberespionage at the Beijing Olympics.

A persistent trope in Western media coverage of China is the claim that Chinese technology is inherently compromised and used as a nefarious tool by Beijing to spy on unwitting foreigners. However, when one actually looks for evidence behind these claims or innuendos, one often finds unsubstantiated speculation.

Bronze bombers: US trolled for ranking countries at Olympics by medals won instead of golds – putting them top above China

As well, ranked by gold medals, Cuba, Hungary and Czech Republic – with four each – all lead Canada with three at the time of publishing.

How the Washington Post’s medal table appeared on Tuesday afternoon

By Thomas Blow, The Sun

(August 3) – THE AMERICAN PRESS have been trolled on social media for presenting the Olympic medal table to show the US on top.

The US team are currently second in the official standings and look set to miss out on top spot for the first time since 2008.

US athlete had to crowdfund to participate in Tokyo Olympics

Reality behind the neo-liberal privatization of sport by the so-called richest country in the world. About 60 per cent of Team USA athletes make less than $25,000 a year. Not only is that not enough to support themselves full-time in their sports, with expenses such as travel, training equipment and coaches’ fees; oftentimes, it’s not even enough to put food on the table.

Zhang Beiwen, ranked 14th in the world, had to turn to crowdfunding | 360badminton.com

By Koijam K and Siti Rohani

The All England Badminton Championships is often described as the Wimbledon of badminton. But this cannot be further from the truth, at least monetarily.

A quarter-finalist at the Wimbledon gets a prize money of US $392,829. In contrast, a quarter-finalist at the All England gets a meagre US $4,675 in prize money.

The Hawaiian

Ryan Pierse | Getty Images

By Tomy Seed

(July 28, revised August 10) – Carissa Moore won the first-ever women’s surfboarding Olympic championship at Tsurigasaki beach in Ichinomiya, Japan on July 27. In the wake of a number of setbacks by seemingly invincible American teams, host Mike Tirico of the NBC Universal TV network was eager to claim a victory in the spectacular new sport and brought her to its lavish set on the waterfront, overlooking the Olympic rings in Tokyo, for an interview in celebration.

Canada finally beat the US in soccer

Alphonso Davies | Cole Burston/Canadian Press

Last night in Toronto, the Canadian men’s soccer team defeated the United States 2-0 in a CONCACAF Nations League match. This is the first time in 34 years that Canada beat the U.S. in men’s soccer. No one on the current team was even born the last time this happened.

Venezuela beats US football team 3-0 prior to Copa America 2019

The national Venezuelan team showed a well-played football with few to no mistakes, finishing the match on Sunday with a confidence-boosting victory of 3-0 in a friendly game in Cincinnati.

Salomon Rondon has become Venezuela’s historic top-scorer with 24 overall goals | @foetball247

(June 9) – The Venezuelan national football team stunned their United States counterpart on Sunday with a confidence-boosting victory of 3-0 in a friendly match in Cincinnati, as part of preparatory games for Copa America 2019.

Obscene and incredibly expensive US college football stadiums

Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan

(CNN) – See if you can wrap your mind around this eye-popping price tag for a renovated college football stadium in Texas: half a billion dollars.

IOC’s double standards: one for the US, another for everyone else?

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is allowing goalies from the US Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey to wear painted helmets depicting the Statue of Liberty, although they violate IOC rules on political symbols and iconography. The team will play Canada for the gold medal of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games on Wednesday.

Olympic imperialism

Ye Shiwen, 16, Gold Medal 400m Medley Swim.

FLASHBACK – The Western press lashed out as one against China’s medal-winning athletes at the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Without the slightest shred of evidence, it systematically raised suspicions of doping, pointing the finger in particular at the young swimmer Ye Shiwen. MANLIO DINUCCI* reminds us that such anti-Chinese racism has a bitter taste of déjà vu.