May 15, 2005

Meanwhile...

Still playing catch-up here from my trip to Baltimore to hear tales of corporate-subsidy hijinks from all corners of the country. (And play some Whack-A-Mole.) We'll go back to our regular news schedule tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's one last helping of mini-briefs:

• The New York city council voted 48-2 last Wednesday to block the mayor's use of city payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) without council approval. This was as expected: Next the mayor will veto the bill, the council will override it, and then one side will sue the other and the whole matter will be settled in court. The outcome could be pivotal for the proposed Jets stadium, which don't forget still has a $600 million funding hole.
• The details of the Deutsche Bank proposal to privately finance a share of the new Washington Nationals stadium are finally coming out: The bank would pay $246 million in cash to buy the rights to future rent payments and stadium concessions-tax money. The good news: The bank could give the city a better deal than borrowing the money outright, enabling D.C. to cut the gross-receipts business surcharge that's helping fund the stadium from $14 million a year to $8 million a year. The bad news: The city would have to guarantee the bank $18 million a year, and if stadium revenues fell short of that mark, it could have to increase taxes to make up the shortfall. But, hey, nothing like that could ever happen - right?
• Speaking of the Nats, if you were wondering whatever happened to that "Armed Forces Field at RFK" thing, try wrapping your brain around "ProFunds Field at RFK" instead.
• The Missouri House of Representatives voted down spending $10 million a year in state money on renovations to the Royals and Chiefs stadiums, a decision that could lead to the teams being allowed to claim the facilities are no longer "state of the art" and breaking their leases. Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt was so choked up about the whole thing, he could barely find the words to extort money from the county next.
• Finally, we have University of Chicago sports economist Allen Sanderson, speaking to the L.A. Times last week on the prospect of the city of Anaheim handing over $150 million worth of city land for an NFL stadium: "There are only two things you do not want on a valuable piece of real estate. One is a cemetery, and the other is a football stadium." Hey, that might be even better than the helicopter line.

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