A little more than a decade ago, Seattle and Portland were basking in the glow of new basketball palaces. KeyArena shimmered with a $74 million, taxpayer-funded makeover. The Rose Garden in Portland preened as the newest arena in the National Basketball Association.

Today, the owners of the SuperSonics and the Trail Blazers say they might have to move if taxpayers can’t reinforce their crumbling business models. If they do get the money, they will surely be back for more, just as soon as rival teams pass them by.

This race to keep pace has been playing out across the country for decades. At some point, it has to end.

The Sonics say they can’t make money if KeyArena doesn’t get $200 million in renovations. Even if the Sonics were to sell out the arena for every home game, they would lose money. They need more luxury suites and other on-site amenities that are the moneymakers in newer arenas across the country. These costly baubles help make an evening at these publicly financed buildings too expensive for the average family.

The Sonics’ ownership wanted the Washington Legislature to extend the sales tax that helped build Safeco Field and Qwest Stadium. Those levies are set to expire in 2014 (baseball) and 2021 (football).

Paul Allen, the owner of the Seahawks and the Trail Blazers, turned the Rose Garden over to creditors rather than pay off the cost of construction. That move has helped sink the team financially, despite the fact that the Trail Blazers reached the NBA finals twice. Allen has reportedly lost $600 million since buying the team in 1988. He says if the city can’t help his team, he will have to move it.

That’s the time for a city to weigh the costs against the benefits and decide how willing it is to raise the fees and taxes needed to cover the cost. Having done that, Portland seems more inclined to say goodbye than to subsidize the seventh-richest man in the world.

Costs need to be recovered ultimately in fees and taxes on incremental sales and property value.

The sports facilities race takes place on the college level, too. The University of Oregon recently spent $90 million to expand its football stadium. Nike founder Phil Knight, an Oregon alumnus, contributed $50 million to $60 million. That project put immediate pressure on other Pacific-10 Conference schools to keep up.

The football stadiums and associated facilities at Stanford and California are undergoing expensive renovations. And, on Tuesday, Washington State University students voted to impose a $25-per-semester student fee to help upgrade Martin Stadium. The fee, which will last for 25 years, is expected to raise $10 million toward the total estimated price tag of $74 million.

WSU doesn’t have a Phil Knight, so it needed to turn to students, many of whom are already struggling with tuition. (The school reportedly sought help from former student Paul Allen, who said no.)

The economic model of big-time sports is obviously broken. The idea that athletics can pay for itself has been proved wrong time after time. The supposed economic benefits have been debunked by numerous academic studies.

All that’s really left to defend these exorbitant amounts is emotion. True, a certain amount of civic pride and camaraderie can be gained through sports. But the amount the public can spend on that isn’t limitless, especially when more important priorities, such as health care, education and transportation, need taxpayer attention.

Communities that have latched onto the sports carousel need to do some serious soul-searching, because that’s a ride with never-ending costs.