A sinful addiction

Every addiction story has its moment of hitting rock bottom, at which point the addict wakes up, registers his or her miserable state in the clear light of day, and sees the choice ahead, along two diverging roads. Down one is incarceration and, perhaps, death. Down the other is a resolve to kick the habit and embark on the painful recovery process.

The cities that have, over the past 20 years, dug themselves ever deeper into the business of building stadiums on the public dime, especially for National Football League franchises, have arrived at rock bottom.

The moment of clarity comes with the move, planned for 2020, of the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas. The Vegas Raiders will call home a sparkling and spectacular $1.9 billion palace, $750 million of which is coming from local tax revenue.

It is the largest local stadium subsidy in the nation’s history.

The fact that the bill will largely fall on tourists paying an increased hotel-room tax is of little consolation. That tax now funds local public schools and public transportation. If hotel prices come down as a result of the hike, they will take a hit.

With the public the chief partner, the Raiders themselves, a franchise worth some $1.5 billion, was set to pick up a half-billion of the balance. How generous.

Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, backed out in January — leading Bank of America jumping in with a loan to fund the remainder, to be paid back who knows how.

As Vegas bends over further backward than a Cirque du Soleil contortionist, the deal will rob one of the league’s most devoted fan bases of a team they loved, then lost to Los Angeles, then learned to love again after their return in 1995.

Oakland’s sin was refusing to foot the bill for a new cathedral. Little wonder why, given that its citizens have even now yet to pay back some $80 million in bonds that paid for renovations to their current home.

This is the way the NFL — whose franchises are worth $75 billion, more than all big-league pro baseball and basketball teams combined — caps a two-decade building bonanza in which 21 new stadiums have been erected and three others heavily renovated the instrumental help of $6.7 billion in public dollars, according to an estimate by ESPN.

One noble exception to the taxpayer-financing spree: MetLife Stadium over the river, home to the Giants and Jets, which was fully funded with private money.

This editorial board has cheered on some smart public-private sports financing deals, such as the use of tax-exempt bonds, to be repaid by the teams, to erect new homes for the Mets and Yankees.

In an era of difficult choices, even such arrangements are increasingly difficult to defend. But what the NFL, the Raiders organization and the city of Las Vegas have just blessed is by any standard an abomination.