[ewood]

I live close to a UK Premier League football stadium. Every match day requires a police riot squad being deployed for crowd control. Given that these teams are privately owned I do wonder about who should ultimately pay the bill for what are public events held for profit.

London Met police costs - http://www.met.police.uk/foi/pdfs/disclosure_2014/august_201...

[geodel]

Best it would be paid by public who would not even be watching or interested in that event. I think it is just a variant of 'You may not be interested in politics but it does not mean politics is not interested in you.

[makomk]

In the UK, the football clubs themselves foot the bill for the large police presence required at their stadiums. Have done for decades. Same with other large-scale commercial events I think.