Adam Hoffer on paying NCAA athletes and Wisconsin’s $23 million start to an EV charging network

Adam Hoffer, director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation in La Crosse, in the WIZM studio for La Crosse Talk PM to discuss paying NCAA Division I athletes, Wisconsin dishing out $23 million for an EV charging network, and selling the Brewers Am-Fam Field for $1. 

La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.

The meat of the conversation (23:00) was about the NCAA recently settling a host of antitrust claims and beginning the framework of paying NCAA Division I athletes.

Hoffer, who taught sports economics at UW-La Crosse, has become a national expert in the developing story, having done research NCAA athletic departments. Everyone is trying to answer questions in how these departments work, where the money comes from and what it means for the future of the NCAA.

Before that (8:30), however, we talked a bit about the EV charging network the state of Wisconsin has started to set the table for, dishing out $23 million to businesses, including $8 million to Kwik Trip.

We also hit on (15:15) a recent La Crosse Talk PM conversation with Milwaukee Brewers president Rich Schlesinger, where we asked him if, instead of $500 million in public funding to renovate Am-Fam Field, what if the state just sold the Brewers the stadium for $1.

We began the show talking quick about real estate and what Hoffer does at the Tax Foundation — essentially, explaining what excise tax policy is, which we learned is taxes on things like marijuana, alcohol and sports gambling.