It’s far from a CTE report, but today’s big sports news comes in the form of the so-called “Paid Patriotism” in professional sports. The Department of Defense spent $10.4 million in taxpayer money on marketing and advertising contracts with teams in the NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, and MLS between 2012 and 2015. The only local team named in the report is the Phillies.

Before we get into that, let’s look at the report’s sweet cover:

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How much did that cost?

According to Business Journal, here’s what the Phillies portion of the report states:

Free tickets, heartwarming homecomings and other displays of patriotism at professional sporting events come at a cost – and for the Philadelphia Phillies, taxpayers supplied $48,000 for the club to show support to our nation’s troops …

The DOD paid the Phillies $24,460 in fiscal year 2012 and another $23,625 in fiscal year 2014, according to the report. Both years, nearly all the money went to the purchase of tickets and a concession credit.

For comparison, the Braves used the taxpayer’s dollars on four on-field presentations that could be used for “a surprise homecoming, first pitch, calling play ball and parades.

The Eagles do not appear in the report. By comparison, let’s see how the Cowboys stack up. They received $262,500 in taxpayer funds over three seasons and used that money to pay for such things as:


  • Four season tickets and a parking pass that were used by various community influencers (FY2012)
  • A total of 10 co-branded letterman jackets that were awarded to high school football coaches recognized as part of the TXARNG (Army National Guard)/Dallas Cowboys Coach of the Week program (FY2013)
  • Twenty five tickets for TXARNG soldiers to attend a military appreciation game and participate in the game day festivities (FY2013)
  • Four VIP suite tickets for the Cowboys game that featured the TXARNG/Dallas Cowboys Coach of the Week pre game presentation (FY2013)
  • Use the Dallas Cowboys Valley Ranch training facility for one event (FY2014)

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the unnecessary use of taxpayer funds for letterman jackets.

Kyle: This sounds worse than it is. It’s not straight-up profit. Rather, the DOD is buying stuff from teams in exchange for flag-waving promotion. Hell, you can buy group tickets yourself and get your name on the scoreboard, play on the court, etc. But really, that whole USA! USA! USA! thing the night they got bin Laden was gratis. Nothing staged about that.