Michigan football has faced many accusations in recent years, but disrupting the housing supply was probably not one they saw coming.
While recently addressing an audience at the Students vs. Billionaires’ town hall at the University of Michigan, the Democrat senatorial hopeful fielded questions about housing issues in the Ann Arbor area.
El-Sayed began by discussing the need for more housing, then added that the increased housing needed to be “available to people who want to live in it.”
As El-Sayed sees it, the obstacle to making housing affordable for people who want to live in it is Michigan football fans.
“The problem with that is this: we are a tourist destination. You know why we are a tourist destination? Football Saturdays.
El-Sayed continued, “So, there’s a lot of folks who have extra capital to spend, who will use a corporation like Airbnb or Vrbo, will buy a housing unit that should have been affordable or available for somebody like you, and then they take it off the market. Which artificially depresses the supply of housing.”
At most, Michigan plays eight home games a year. Sometimes less if they have a neutral-site series against another school. So, at most, “capital” spending: Wolverines fans buy an Airbnb for eight Saturdays a year.
It seems a stretch to attribute earth-shattering market consequences to such a minimal, seasonal event.
Even if Wolverines fans bought the properties and took them off the market completely for the entire year (which seems odd if they were only using them seven or eight times per year), it seems unlikely there would be enough such purchases to depress the market.
Nor does El-Sayed make mention of the thousands of jobs the Michigan football program creates for Ann Arbor residents and others in the surrounding area.
X users quickly mocked El-Sayed for attributing Ann Arbor’s depressed housing market to Saturday football.
“Maybe instead of football……it’s millions of illegal aliens entering the country…” one user wrote.
“I seriously doubt people are buying houses in Ann Arbor as rentals for just 6 or 7 Saturdays a year. That doesn’t seem like a solid business plan. If you already own and want a little extra cash, it works,” wrote another.
“Does he actually think that attacking football, especially college football, is going to make him popular?!” another opined.
Attacking Michigan football seems an odd tactic for someone trying to become the state’s next senator.
But then again, it’s no secret that El-Sayed isn’t a real college football fan. He showed that in August when he gushed about beating “Ohio” in an interview on MS NOW.
“I’ll tell you what I’m excited about. It’s about the football season. And you mentioned Ohio for some reason in this interview. I can’t wait to beat Ohio. And let’s just remember, JD Vance, Ohio JD Vance, Peter Thiel JD Vance, is coming to Michigan next week.”
As many commenters pointed out at the time, no true college football fan would use the word “Ohio” alone to refer to Ohio State. Thus, El-Sayed’s attempt to appear as a real Michigan fan failed.
Which may be why he’s showing his true colors now and openly attacking the team’s fans.