Hoffer on Wisconsin athletes profiting off their names and state track headed to La Crosse

Adam Hoffer, director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation, joins La Crosse Talk to cover everything from Wisconsin high school athletes profiting off their names, to the state track meet’s economic impact on La Crosse and Illinois passing a sports betting tax hike in the middle of the night.

La Crosse Talk airs weekdays at 6-8 a.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk wherever you get your podcasts.

We kick things off with the recent 293-108 vote by Wisconsin athletic directors in favor of allowing high schoolers to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL). As NIL and the transfer portal continue to reshape college sports, we explore whether similar changes are coming to the high school level — think Johnny Davis transferring to Onalaska High School because a business there paid him thousands of dollars in an NIL deal.

Next, we dive into the world of sports gambling. While Wisconsin has narrowly legalized betting and sees minimal revenue, Illinois just passed a surprise tax increase that could rake in more money—but it’s not sitting well with the industry.

Finally, with some 20,000 flooding into La Crosse for the WIAA state track meet at UW-L, we take a closer look at the claims of major economic impact. Do events like state track and Oktoberfest really bring in tens of millions to La Crosse? We break it down on how accurate those studies are.