As a taxpayer, this is a fucking insult.

Damn talk about a hustle I'm surprised that much money was secured even factoring in across multiple levels of schools and all that.

Lotta great sounding stuff on paper and theoreticals whenever people want to make a case for this stuff in schools and go on about esports on a more serious level, but fact of the matter is generally a majority of esports orgs are insanely overvalued and often not even profitable. It's such a tiny fraction of people who go on to actually make anything out of it and generally they're not even the people playing the games.

Even some of the best people playing certain games can barely rake in conventionally good esports and sponsor money, fighting games in general are notorious for not being something that pays awful well even if you win some of the biggest tournaments. A lotta these guys get more from pushing out usual content creator flow or shill lifestyle brand wares.

Definitely worth a go reading this article for insight on this subject. This NYT article is also a good one as well.

No esports aren't going to up and die any time soon but people are getting straight up lied to if they're getting sold this grandiose sales pitch vision that if Little Timmy uses any free extracurricular time playing games during the school day that he'll go on to crush Korea's best at EVO and make mom and dad millionaires and develop all sorts of skills he wouldn't have acquired anywhere else in life.

Meanwhile Pershing Ice Skating ring is closed for the season due to lack of funds for maintenance.

Robin.

How much does jersey city spend on high school sports?

A million bucks of tax dollars going to kids playing video games.

I mean, I play video games too, but that million should be spent on something else.

Board of Education doesn't run the skating rink.

Aren't we already paying like $28k a year per student for jack shit results? Is this just some sort of victory lap to make sure the taxpayers know that they can just go fuck themselves?

What was that sound? OH! That was our taxes going up AGAIN!

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NYC does this very well for a large city IMO. Most of the bad neighborhoods are within walking distance of a park and most of the parks are safe enough during the day. Individual projects have small playgrounds and basketball courts, and there's a decent number of athletic facilities spread across the city as well. A lack of actual good green / park space is my biggest complaint about Jersey City.

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Are you fucking kidding me? They slap us with a giant tax increase, wring their hands that they have old, dilapidated schools, and then turn around and spend $1 million so kids can play video games.

End BOE independence now. It's time to get some technocrats in there to fix this mess.

I never considered fighting games esports because of the poor payouts compared to other genres.

Fucking VIDEO GAMES ????? My kids school doesn't have DRINKING WATER !!!!!! Pathetic

As a taxpayer and a parent, this news is double insults. Even elementary schools are also included in this program

FYI: excessive screen time is associated with a number of health issues, including depression and obesity, and can also have a negative impact on a child's sleep. Screen time can also adversely affect brain development in young children.

Robin that is not true. The old ice compressors cannot be fixed. The old system must be replaced entirely.

This is bad.

Half the kids can’t read and two thirds can’t math at grade level but they want to spend $1M on esports. The BOE mafia are the most corrupt and inept assholes on earth.

Sounds a better use of a million dollars.

Robin.

Just wait till next year JCBOE budget. Why these fucks can’t get voted out, I don’t know.

It blew my mind that JC elected three new BOE members that support increases...who's voting for tax increases?!?!