--- description: Why football stadiums are a boondoggle, why San Antonio is giving away solar panels, why barber shop health screenings work and more title: Why the Public Shouldn't Pay for Sports Arenas image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt135deb7373d1cd2e/698863a8f887dc1f72e925ad/gettyimages-476030058.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Innovation](/tag/innovation/) ## Innovation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why the Public Shouldn't Pay for Sports Arenas by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 15, 2015 4:01 PM CUT  by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 15, 2015 4:01 PM CUT **1\.** [**Professional sports stadiums are a boondoggle, and the public shouldn’t foot the bill.**](http://www.citylab.com/politics/2015/09/the-never-ending-stadium-boondoggle/403666/ "undefined") By Richard Florida in CityLab **2\.** [**San Antonio’s power utility has a brilliant plan to give solar panels away.**](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/the%5Fjuice/2015/09/solar%5Fpanels%5Ffrom%5Fcps%5Fenergy%5Fthe%5Fsan%5Fantonio%5Futility%5Fs%5Fbrilliant%5Fnew%5Fbusiness.html "undefined") By Daniel Gross in Slate **3\.** [**Meet the doctor trying to save the health of black men one haircut at a time.**](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/harlem-barber-shop-screenings%5F55b7a0b7e4b0074ba5a636e6 "undefined") By Erin Schumaker in Huffington Post **4\.** [**Is it time to tax the endowments of Harvard, Yale, and Stanford?**](http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2015/09/harvard%5Fyale%5Fstanford%5Fendowments%5Fis%5Fit%5Ftime%5Fto%5Ftax%5Fthem.html "undefined") By Jordan Weissmann in Slate **5\.** [**This robot has a deadly mission to save the Great Barrier Reef.**](http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34129490 "undefined") By Tom Espiner in BBC News  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ "undefined") _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4034753/public-shouldnt-pay-sports-arenas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4034753/public-shouldnt-pay-sports-arenas/"},"headline":"Why the Public Shouldn't Pay for Sports Arenas","datePublished":"2015-09-15T16:01:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:40.600Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4034753/public-shouldnt-pay-sports-arenas/","keywords":["Innovation","Football","Harvard","health","solar"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt135deb7373d1cd2e/698863a8f887dc1f72e925ad/gettyimages-476030058.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt135deb7373d1cd2e/698863a8f887dc1f72e925ad/gettyimages-476030058.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-476030058","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4034753/public-shouldnt-pay-sports-arenas/","name":"Why the Public Shouldn't Pay for Sports Arenas"}}]}] ```