Michael Austin, a Kansas economist and a lobbyist for the free-market, small-government group Americans for Prosperity, awaits the start of a legislative hearing on a proposal that the group opposes to allow the state to issue bonds to help professional football's Kansas City Chiefs build a new stadium in Kansas, Monday, June 17, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. For decades, economists who've studied professional sports have argued that government subsidies for new stadiums are not worth the cost. (AP Photo/John Hanna)