Arizona Cardinals’ Taxable Income Includes Fees on Ticket Sales

Arizona’s National Football League team must include stadium facility use fees it collects on ticket sales in its taxable gross income, a state appeals court ruled.

The fee—used to finance State Farm Stadium—is included in the tax base for calculating Arizona’s and the city of Glendale’s transaction privilege taxes, the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, ruled. “The Fee is gross income to the Team, who then pays it to the Authority as an incurred expense as part of its business operations at the Stadium,” Judge David B. Gass wrote for the court in a Dec. 11 unpublished opinion. ...