This story first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
I wonder what this means in real terms? If, say, ‘the team’ had to pay a reasonable rate consistent with what the players pay, what is the difference in dollars across the four major sports leagues?
My entire adult life, the tax code has gotten more favorable for those at the top, always in the name of economic progress. It needs to stop. Our tax code should promote the common good.
Being a major league sports franchise owner is good work if you can get it. /s
“More significantly, if owners die while holding their stake, as many do, the tax savings may never be repaid. And their heirs can generally restart the amortization cycle anew.” This provision is subject to change under the Biden tax proposals - which would eliminate the Sec. 1014(b) step up in tax basis on date of death. By eliminating this, the capital gains would be taxed if and when the team is sold, and it cannot be depreciated again without being sold (and capital gains tax being paid).
It would seem to me that any taxes owed should be cleared at the time of any sale of the franchise.
You sound suspiciously like a socialist 
. Next thing you will be advocating for Eisenhower’s socialist tax rates.
It is notable that this is the exact opposite of the situation in the allegedly amateur NCAA. In the NCAA virtually all owners (a/k/a colleges and universities) have to subsidize their sports teams: even the increasingly mis-named revenue sports (football and basketball, men’s).
And to make matters worse for us dupes, the owners get cities to build stadiums for them at taxpayers expense. The whole system is rotten and needs to be overhauled.
Subsidize with what money though? Boosters earmark funds for athletics (officially or under the table) and launder it through the University.
That is what they want you to believe, and sometimes it actually happens that way.
Remember that money is fungible, and so it can (and does) happen that money intended for academic pursuits gets redirected into athletics.