As a football fan, I greatly enjoyed Johnny Mars' America's Parking Lot which explores the business of sports as a form of social commentary on what's wrong with America, really with American capitalism, today. A film that appears initially to be a study of the crazy quirky Dallas Cowboys fans tailgating at Texas Stadium is actually something much more. The film looks at what happens when the Dallas Cowboys build the billion dollar Cowboys Stadium with taxpayer funding and pass the cost along to the fans. The result is that many working class fans are priced out of the market, because they can no longer afford the exorbitant ticket prices for personal seat licenses. The implications in terms of the use taxpayer funds and the access of ordinary fans to their teams are deeply troubling. Sports are a useful microcosm for examining many aspects of society from race to business. Here we see yet another example of how wealthy individuals and large corporations are taking over every aspect of America life and excluding ordinary working people. Sadly, they are often able to get taxpayer subsidies to billionaires which are justified in the name of supposed, but often difficult to quantify, economic development. This film premiered at Austin's SXSW Film Festival which is appropriate since Austin is engaged in a similar debate whether to build an F1 racing track. Similar trends can be seen in college football which has become a billion dollar business that exploits a free labor pool of student-athletes. While this film may appear as if it will only appeal to sports fans, it actually offers a far broader critique of government and business that should appeal much more broadly. I hope that a small film like this can gain a broader audience.
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