[Also see] The Sport Swindle Ticker and City-by-City Updates at the Field of Schemes website. And the Ransom Notes page of stadium news at the New Rules Project website.
Baltimore, the home of Camden Yards ballpark, is frequently held up as a shining example of what new sports facilities can do for a city. What effect has the famous Oriole Park actually had on the community that paid for it?
Mile High Stadium can be used safely and effectively for the next 30 years. It would be a waste of a good facility to tear it down. . . . Mayor Webb and City Attorney Dan Muse are on record as saying that the Broncos have a valid and enforceable lease until the year 2018. The only way for them to get out of this lease would be for them to blatantly break it and walk away. Doing this would expose them and possibly even the National Football League to very serious litigation from the City of Denver and a public relations debacle. Because of this, we do not believe their threats to sell and move the team are real. You shouldn't either.
Apparently unimpressed, the Denver Nuggets basketball team is reportedly expecting a turn at the public trough.
The case against the Broncos stadium
Denver Post stadium news
Rocky Mountain News: Denver Broncos coverage
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Neil deMause, co-author of Field of Schemes, reports:
Little Caesar's Pizza owner Mike Ilitch has received approval to tear down Tiger Stadium, a national historic site, and move his Detroit Tigers into a new ballpark on downtown land donated by the city. In all, Ilitch will get $320 million in state and city funds for two new stadiums, one for the Tigers and one for the Detroit Lions, which still have several years remaining on their stadium lease in suburban Pontiac. Ilitch is scheduled to kick in $145 million of his own money, but that should be more than compensated by the lucrative parking rights granted to him by the city as part of the deal.
Neil deMause, co-author of Field of Schemes, reports:
Broward County is spending $212 million to build a new hockey arena for billionaire (and ex-Blockbuster Video CEO) Wayne Huizenga's Florida Panthers, while neighboring Dade County is paying for three-quarters of the cost of a $162.5 million basketball arena for the Miami Heat and their owner, billionaire (and Carnival Cruise Lines CEO) Mickey Arison. Along with the soon-to-be-vacant Miami Arena (built in 1988 at a cost of $53 million, and currently shared by the two teams), this will leave the region with three nearly new publically funded arenas for just two teams.Huizenga, meanwhile, is in the process of selling his World Champion Florida Marlins baseball team, as a precursor to demanding a new stadium.
The $210 million baseball park would have cost taxpayers $140 million. Private investors would cover the balance of the cost. If approved, it might have become the home of the Minnesota Twins, who are now reportedly looking at Charlotte, N.C.
Greensboro News-Record
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The opposition was led by GAGME (Grassroots Against Government-Mandated Entertainment), whose website includes extensive discussion of stadium issues.
Over the last five years, one of the hottest political and social issues facing the areas surrounding several of Ohio's major cities, including Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus, has been the extent to which government should act to keep, or attempt to attract, professional sports teams. The latest Ohio Poll asked state residents about one common approach Ohio communities have considered as a means of keeping, or attracting professional sports teams: government funding of new stadiums and coliseums using tax dollars.Sixty-eight percent of Ohioans say professional sports teams are not important enough to spend tax money on stadiums and coliseums for this purpose, while thirty-one percent say sports teams are important enough to spend tax money on stadiums and coliseums.
. . . Ohioans in almost all demographic and geographic groups have large majorities that say professional sports teams are not important enough to spend tax money on stadiums and coliseums to keep teams in Ohio, or to lure them to Ohio. Young Ohioans, between 18 and 29 years old, are evenly split between whether or not public spending to keep or lure sports teams is a good idea.
These findings are based on the most recent Ohio Poll conducted by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati from January 20 through February 3, 1998.
Read the Ohio Poll press release
A Tale of Two Cities - Cleveland's ballpark development
Ohio Sen. Horn's page on stadium issues
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Latest Oklahoma City MAPS news
Official Oklahoma City MAPS website
MAPS project runs into budget snag
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BOB pictures and stats
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Of the $809 million cost, most will be financed through existing tax revenues and new bond debt. The Pirates will give $40 million; the Steelers, $76.5 million.
The money will be used to build a $228 million baseball park at the end of the Sixth Street Bridge on the North Shore; a $233 million football stadium, just west of Three Rivers Stadium; and a $267 million expansion of the convention center. Once the outstanding $40 million debt on Three Rivers is paid, the stadium will be demolished. Another $30 million will go into a fund to create an entertainment center.
Allegheny Institute criticizes original funding plan
Pirates, Steelers finances remain guarded secret
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Special Report: The '49ers Stadium Saga
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Meanwhile, work continues on the baseball stadium ordered by state legislators in 1995, even after Seattle voters rejected a tax hike to fund it. Safeco Field, projected for completion in July 1999, has a price tag of $415 million. That's a cost overrun of 29.68% compared with initial estimate of $320 million.
Owners of the Seattle Mariners ball club are contributing only $75 million to the total; the rest comes from a tax on prepared foods and rental cars. Some Washington state lottery sales will also go to the stadium, along with proceeds from the sale of stadium license plates.
The Mariners announced June 4 that the field will be named Safeco Field. Safeco Insurance Co. bought the naming rights with a pledge of $1.8 million per year for the next 20 years.
Safeco Field pictures and stats
Mariners have no significant impact on Seattle economy
Ending Professional Sports Welfare
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The St. Petersburg city government completed the "Florida Suncoast Dome" in 1990. It remained unoccupied until 1993, when the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team took up residence and dubbed the place the "Thunderdome."
In 1995 Tampa Bay finally received a Major League Baseball franchise. The Devil Rays began playing in 1996, the same year that the field was renamed Tropicana Field in a deal with Tropicana Dole Beverages Inc.
The May 5 vote was 59% to 41% against the tax increase - despite the fact that those in favor of the stadium outspent opponents by an estimated 200 to 1. Opposition was led by "People Incensed by the Stadium Tax" (PIST).
Toledo Libertarian Party news
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