21 out of the 25 states with pro sports do this. It is not a political thing. It is a government thing. Like Bob said, it's very similar to Hotel tax, but at least hotel tax is applied to everyone who stays in a hotel. The way this tax is applied, you have businessmen who work in California half the year and never pay tax there because nobody knows when they are there or what money the make on the days they are there. Because athletes have public schedules and public salaries, they get hammered.
The worst thing to me is that I can guarantee California is not taxing the visiting owners on 1/16 of their revenue sharing since they played in town that week. That's because the owners are rich enough to avoid paying taxes through all manners of shelter/evasion. The players are only rich enough to get killed on their taxes. The various unions are an embarrassment, as this should be the exact thing they are protecting their members from.
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