April 25, 2007
San Jose mayor: Let's feed Sharks
While Santa Clara debates flinging $180 million at the San Francisco 49ers for an uncertain payoff, nearby San Jose's Mayor Chuck Reed has endorsed spending $8.25 million on upgrades to the San Jose Sharks' HP Pavilion. The money would be used, reports the San Jose Mercury News, for such items as a new "scoreboard, sound system and flashing light display to ring the arena's interior."
The upgrades, explained Reed, are needed to "maintain the viability of the building"; he added, "You have to spend money to make money." And how would the city make money on its investment? Through "rent and naming rights payments," reports the Merc News - though those are both fixed sums according to the Sharks' lease, so the city wouldn't actually benefit directly no matter how many nights the arena is booked.
Deputy city manager Dan McFadden tried a slightly different tack: "The benefit to us in keeping the building busy is that it's the primary economic activity for the restaurants and other businesses downtown." San Jose's city sales tax rate appears to be 1% (the state collects another 7.25%), which means that to recoup its $8.25 million investment, the additional arena patrons lured by the arena improvements would have to spend somewhere on the order of $60 million a year at downtown restaurants - or about as much the entire Sharks fan base spends on hockey games. But, hey, who doesn't like flashing light displays?
Speaking of San Jose, any news on the proposed MLS soccer stadium for the city?
Posted by Bertell Ollman on April 26, 2007 06:44 PM
According to Lew Wolff, the partnership to build a stadium at SJSU is dead. The issue was parking revenue.
Posted by Mike on April 29, 2007 12:23 PM
