The Defense Department dished out $7 million over the last few years paying professional sports teams for public tributes to the military, according to a report released Wednesday by US Senators.
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) turned up that the “paid patriotism” contracts were awarded, starting in 2012, to organizations within the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer.
The Senators noted that most of the contracts involved the Army National Guard, and stipulated “on-field color guard, enlistment and re-enlistment ceremonies, performances of the national anthem, full-field flag details, ceremonial first pitches and puck drops, and hometown hero and wounded warrior tributes.”
In one example of the arrangement, the Pentagon paid the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons to recognize wounded warriors and have a National Guard member sing the national anthem. The New York Jets were paid $20,000 to honor New Jersey National Guard members at every home game.
Another contract involved the department paying MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers $49,000 to sponsor performances of “God Bless America.”
“Americans across the country should be deeply disappointed that many of the ceremonies honoring troops at professional sporting events are not actually being conducted out of a sense of patriotism, but for profit in the form of millions in taxpayer dollars going from the Department of Defense to wealthy pro sports franchises,” Senator McCain said in a statement with the release of the report.
“Fans should have confidence that their hometown heroes are being honored because of their honorable military service, not as a marketing ploy,” he added.
The Senators also took exception with sports dealings that they deemed wasted taxpayer dollars, such as the US Air Force paying the Cincinnati Bengals $4,960 for 60 club level tickets, and the National Guard purchasing 40 lower level center court seats from the NBA’s Indiana Pacers.
According to the report, the Pentagon was less than forthcoming with information about its financial relationship to professional sports teams. The Senators noted in a statement that their findings come “after months of investigative work, through which DOD failed to adequately provide the senators’ staff with information they requested regarding the scale of these paid tributes.”
They claimed that more than a third of the contracts listed in the report were not provided by the defense department, and instead were discovered through probing conducted by the Senators’ own staffers.
The department’s financial relationships with sports franchises were disclosed in May, when NJ.com reported that 14 professional football teams had received more than $5 million to hold patriotic displays during games.
The NFL since promised its own investigation into the matter, and pledged to reimburse any payment it received that was inappropriate.
This year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes a provision prohibiting the Pentagon from such paid tribute arrangements in the future.
