Red Sox and Eagles and Bears, Oh My: With legislative sessions winding down, stadium battles are heating up. Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis have all seen action on the stadium-subsidy front this month in a flurry of year-end activity.

The only team to have actual public stadium money approved so far is the Chicago Bears, whose plan for a $587 million reconstruction of historic Soldier Field passed the Illinois state legislature November 30. Under the plan, the Bears and the NFL will chip in $100 million apiece, while the remaining $387 million comes from the existing 2% hotel-motel tax originally passed to fund the White Sox' new Comiskey Park in 1991. (The Bears will also see their rent increase from $1 million to $5.7 million a year, but will receive all revenues from suites, signage, and concessions.) Legislators seemed mostly concerned that the city, not the state, would be on the hook for the subsidy, with State Sen. Vince Demuzio saying in support of the measure, "Finally, we do something for the city that doesnąt cost us anything." . . .

The scene is very different in Boston, where the Red Sox plan to demolish Fenway Park remains barely alive. On November 28, the city council tore into team officials and Mayor Tom Menino over the $665 million stadium plan that was passed by the state legislature in July. A two-thirds vote of the council is required to approve eminent domain land takings for the project, meaning only five votes on the 13-member council can block approval. A solid block of five councilors oppose the stadium plan, with several more on the fence -- one of whom, Paul Scapicchio, said following the hearing that the Sox would have to make "major concessions" for him to vote for the plan: "If this thing is going to fly, what they're going to have to do is sell some people, show that this is a good thing, come out and explain why this isn't what it seems now, which is right now it doesn't seem that great."

Councilmembers also presented the results of a study they commissioned from Congressional Budget Office analyst Dennis Zimmerman, which noted that the current plan underestimates the cost of both land and bonds -- the city's plan to use tax-exempt bonds, he noted, is illegal -- and predicted that Boston's final pricetag for the project will be in the neighborhood of $662 million.

Public opinion on stadium subsidies turned further against the Sox a week later, when the team signed slugger Manny Ramirez to a $160 million, eight-year contract -- then promptly declared that it would be seeking more money from the state or city to pay for $60 million in anticipated land cost overruns. "Santa Claus is fully engaged right now with schools, health care and a host of other concerns," responded state house speaker Tom Finneran. The Boston Herald's more succinct editorial reply: "The Red Sox have got to be kidding, right?" . . .

The St. Louis Cardinals are also stepping up their push for a new stadium, making overtures to southern Illinois as a possible fallback plan -- or leverage -- if St. Louis doesn't cough up the stadium dough. (The Illinois legislature narrowly rejected a Cardinals stadium financing bill in the same session where the Bears stadium package was approved.) The ballclub has also proclaimed the standard arbitrary deadline, saying if no stadium plan is in place by May 2001, they will start to look out of state for a new home. The Cardinals drew 3.34 million fans this year, second-best in the majors. . . .

Council hearings are also underway in Philadelphia, where the Eagles and Phillies are hoping for approval of a $1.1 billion package for a pair of new stadiums in South Philadelphia. (See 11/27 news item.) A final vote is scheduled for tomorrow, with the stadiums expected to be approved. . . .

Finally, the Florida Marlins have reached a tentative agreement with Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami for a 40,000-seat retractable-roofed baseball stadium in that city's downtown. If approved by city and county commissions and the state legislature, the plan woulduse ticket and parking taxes, existing hotel taxes, naming rights fees, and stadium-area sales taxes to fund the bulk of the $385 million project. The team would kick in $6 million a year in rent, and change its name to the Miami Marlins. . . .

With local corporations pouring money into the 2012 Olympic bids filed by eight regions (New York, Baltimore-Washington, Cincinnati, Tampa-Orlando, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles) on December 15, some observers are wondering about the effects on media coverage. "Why, in all of the Washington Post's coverage of the city's 2012 Olympic bid, is it so rarely disclosed that the Washington Post Co. is one of the corporations that is financially supporting the effort?" wrote Milt Milton to Jim Romenesko's MediaNews. "This lack of disclosure is even more troubling when you examine the tenor of the paper's coverage of the issue, which has been unstintingly positive. Is everyone in the city in agreement that the bid is a good idea? Are there any local activists, groups or politicians who think it might be a waste of money or a strain on the city's infrastructure? You wouldn't know it from reading the Post, which has a direct financial interest in bringing the 2012 games to the city." --December 19, 2000

Mayor Street's Hurry-Up Offense: Like NBA games, stadium battles are generally only at their most entertaining in the closing minutes. It's then, with legislators staring down the barrel of a deadline (often self-imposed and arbitrary), that the proposals start flying fast and furious, as everyone tries to slip stadium packages through under the gun.

Philadelphia was no exception this week, as Mayor John Street let loose with a pair of bombshells. On Tuesday, Street declared that he was abandoning his year-long effort to place a stadium for the Phillies on the edge of Chinatown, where it had been bitterly opposed by local residents and merchants. Two days later, he announced his new plan: a $1 billion package, $300 million of which would be paid for by the city, to build new stadiums for the Phillies and Eagles in a warehouse district near their existing Veterans Stadium in South Philly.

Street's proposal, which came just two weeks before the council's self-imposed deadline to agree on a stadium package, was convoluted even for the esoteric world of sports stadium financing. Under the plan, the Eagles would pay $310 million toward the construction of their $395 million stadium, while the Phillies would pay $172 million toward their $346 million facility. The state will pay $170 million (already agreed to by the legislature back in early 1999), while the city will pay an additional $401 million: $304 million in bonds for construction and site acquisition, to be paid out of a 2% hike in the car rental tax approved in July, as well as incremental tax revenues that will be assigned to the new stadiums. (Incremental revenues are from existing taxes, such as sales and property taxes, that are determined to increase when there is economic development in a region. So-called "tax increment financing" has been heavily criticized by economists as misleading, since much of this "new" economic activity is in fact diverted from elsewhere in the region.)

The teams will pay no rent, but the Phillies will pay operating and maintenance costs on their stadium; the city will pay operating expenses on the football stadium. The teams will keep all revenues from the facilities, including concessions, naming rights, and parking, but if the teams are sold within the next five years, they will give 25% of the profits to a non-profit city fund for children -- but after deducting operating losses and debt service payments, which could make this clause moot. The teams will, however, pay $1 million a year each into the children's fund, as well as paying up to $375,000 a year into a stadium district services fund.

Confused yet? Next, factor in that while the teams are to pay cost overruns on construction costs, increases in the estimated $95 million land acquisition cost will be borne by the city. Of the landowners on the new sites, two, according to the Philadelphia Daily News, are owned by contributors to the mayor's election campaign: one of these, developer Bart Blatstein, purchased the property after serving on a mayoral stadium transition committee earlier this year.

"It is convoluted," admits city controller Jonathan Seidel, who is awaiting full revenue projections from the mayor's office before taking a position on the proposal. "What's important to me is what type of drain is it on our cash position?"

What the city council will make of Street's new proposal is as yet uncertain, but at least one councilor was peeved at Street's last-minute bait-and-switch on the stadium sites. "This is a contrived crisis," City Councilman Jim Kenney told the Philadelphia Daily News after Street's abandonment of the Chinatown plan, but before the new proposal was put forward. "If this is where we were going to end up, we could have worked on it over the summer. Now we're backed up against a wall." . . .

Both Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwell and Houston Rockets owner Les Alexander won new publicly financed facilities from the voters on election day, though the Cardinals vote was razor-thin, and the team may face yet another referendum on where in Maricopa County to site their planned stadium. For each locale, this was a reversal of a referendum last year, when Houston voters rejected building a new Rockets arena, while Mesa, Arizona, overwhelmingly turned down a Cardinals stadium plan. To help turn the tide, Houston stadium boosters spent $1.5 million hyping their "no new taxes" pledge (the arena money will come out of existing hotel and car rental taxes); the pro-stadium Arizona Wins, meanwhile, through October had outspent stadium opponents by a margin of $1,700,000 to $215, helping erase what in September had been a 15-point poll deficit for the stadium plan. . . .

Latest running total on cost of San Diego Chargers ticket guarantee to city taxpayers this season: $5.76 million. The city is attempting to renegotiate the Chargers' lease to eliminate the guarantee, but the team, unsurprisingly, isn't interested. . . . Chicago Mayor Richard Daley plans to ask the Illinois legislature for approval of a $587 million renovation of Soldier Field and the surrounding lakefront. The Bears would kick in $200 million (a portion of which would come from the NFL's stadium loan program), while the remainder would come from city bonds, to be paid off from existing hotel/motel taxes. . . .

The High Cost of Nosebleeds Dept.: "Even though the base of the new building is significantly lower -- probably 60 feet lower -- than Foxboro Stadium's, by the time it's finished the new stadium will vertically be higher than the current stadium," Patriots chief operating officer Andy Wasynczuk told the Boston Herald. "It's going to be a pretty impressive structure." . . . The High Cost of Nosebleeds Dept., Part 2: Average ticket price at PNC Park, the new home of the Pittsburgh Pirates opening in 2001: $19.24, up 63% from the $11.80 average at Three Rivers Stadium in 2000. Price of the least expensive tickets is going up 50%, from $6 to $9. . . .

While New York City is spending more than $100 million on minor-league stadiums for the Mets and Yankees, amateur sports in the city are running out of funds, according to a report in the Staten Island Register. Several schools have already cancelled their football seasons for lack of funds; Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn played only one game before exhausting its $670 budget for the season. . . . Giuliani's stadium push claimed an unexpected victim on Friday, when city demolition crews tore down the Thunderbolt, a historic wooden rollercoaster that had stood for 75 years on the edge of Coney Island's Steeplechase Park. The Thunderbolt, which was best known for featuring in the Woody Allen movie "Annie Hall," had been ruled by the city Department of Buildings to be a "dangerous structure"; neighborhood speculation, however, was that the city decided an ivy-covered, abandoned rollercoaster was not the appropriate backdrop for the Mets minor-league stadium going up next door. --November 18, 2000

Eagles Threaten To Fly: Right on cue, the Philadelphia Eagles are hauling out veiled threats of leaving town as a November 30 deadline approaches for the city council to decide on new stadiums for both the Eagles and Phillies. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue tossed down the first gauntlet, saying he would meet with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie to "see what the alternatives are" if no stadium deal is in place by the deadline; team VP Joe Banner followed up with a statement that "It's bizarre to me that anyone could think we have no other options" to staying at Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium. What neither noted is a very strong incentive for the team to remain in Philly: the league's Resolution G-2 program, instituted last year to stem the tide of clubs abandoning major media markets, provides low-cost loans for teams building stadiums in the top six markets nationwide. Philadelphia is number four, and the only potential relocation site in the top six is Los Angeles, which has so far steadfastly refused to provide any public subsidies for a football stadium. . . .

A public squabble has broken out between New York Mets co-owners Fred Wilpon and Nelson Doubleday, with Doubleday openly criticizing Wilpon's plan for a new retractable-roofed stadium that could cost as much as $1 billion, and urging a renovation of Shea Stadium instead. "Freddy really wants to build a Stadium, and I'm not so hot to do that," Doubleday told reporters during the World Series. "I think we should just rebuild this. I don't see why the taxpayers should help us or buy us a new home. They did it once; let's fix it." Doubleday's power within the organization may be limited, though -- he also criticized Shea's hyper-loud sound system and playing of "Who Let The Dogs Out?" ("I hate that song," he said), yet both remained in place throughout the World Series. . . .

Chicks Dig The Romaine: Former Red Sox infielder-turned-Reds exec Tim Naehring, telling ESPN's Bob Ley why Fenway Park should be torn down: "I think when you go to Fenway Park, everybody realizes the tradition that is there. They also realize that the seats are probably a little bit smaller. The moms realize that they can't get a nice chef's salad. ... And the more things you can offer people, I think the better off you are." . . .

Add the Orlando Magic to the list of NBA franchises seeking a new arena, as billionaire owner Rich DeVos is demanding a replacement for the 11-year-old Orlando Arena. With the Miami Heat already ensconced at the new publicly subsidized American Airlines Arena, and the Charlotte Hornets looking to get a new facility as well, this leaves only the Minnesota Timberwolves among the four 1988-89 NBA expansion franchises to be content remaining in their then-new buildings -- and the T-wolves have already demanded and received, in 1994, a $74 million public bailout on their private construction debt for the Target Center. . . .

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban griped to a local sports talk radio station last week that the Dallas Morning News was refusing to run a special section previewing his team's season because "I didn't buy enough advertising" to support it. As the alt-weekly Dallas Observer noted, "The implication is, of course, that coverage at the Morning News not only can be purchased but must be purchased." . . .

Among the upcoming stadium and arena votes on Election Day: Maricopa County, Arizona, will vote on a $335 million football stadium for the Arizona Cardinals as part of a $1.8 billion sports-and-tourism package, to be funded by car-rental and hotel taxes; Houston, Texas will vote on a $255 million arena deal for the Rockets, one year after voters rejected a near-identical deal; a 20,000-seat arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that at present would host only minor-league hockey and arena football, funded via a $263 million sales tax hike. --October 28, 2000

Sale Scrambles Sox Stadium-Seeking: Last week's bombshell announcement by Boston Red Sox president John Harrington that he was putting the Yawkey Trust's majority share of the club up for sale threw the long-running Fenway Park saga into further confusion. Speculation immediately began as to what the impending sale would mean for the team's $665 million stadium plans, even as Harrington first said he would wait until a new owner was in place before moving ahead with the stadium, then flip-flopped and said work on securing both public and private financing would continue as the sale process drags on.

Even as the team was placed on the block, word was getting out that the team's request for $352 million in private financing had been judged untenable by FleetBoston Financial Corp. And the Boston city council, which would be on the hook for $212 million under the plan agreed to by Red Sox and state officials back in July, reacted to the sale news by strengthening its resolve against giving funds to the project. "The news that the Red Sox are on the sales block signals to me that, on the issue of new stadium public financing, all bets are off," said City Councillor at Large Michael F. Flaherty, who had previously backed the team's stadium plans. "I can state now that I will not commit to one cent of City of Boston financing for a new stadium for the 'Red Sox' until I find out who the new 'Red Sox' will be. It would be reckless to commit $212 million in public financing for a new stadium today, only to find out tomorrow that the team has been purchased by an Internet multi-billionaire or, on the other hand, an over-leveraged buyer who may not be able to repay the city's investment. Consequently, I believe the issue of a new stadium being built according to the terms of the stadium bill passed by the Legislature in July to be dead." . . .

The week after New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's press conference calling for a new domed stadium on Manhattan's West Side -- regardless of whether the Jets, Mets, Yankees, or 2012 Olympics played there -- Mets co-owner Nelson Doubleday remarked to reporters that his team might consider renovating Shea Stadium, since "I don't see a great deal of taxpayer money to build the New York Mets a stadium." Giuliani immediately shot back that the city would commit to paying a third of the cost of new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees, if the state would pick up another third and the teams the remaining third. (A spokesperson for Gov. Pataki told Newsday that the state had no interest in such a plan.) As for Doubleday's partner, Fred Wilpon, who has pushed for a half-billion-dollar domed stadium to be built adjacent to Shea, he would only say of his co-owner, "If that's what he said, that's what he said." . . .

Construction remains halted on the San Diego Padres' downtown ballpark, as a federal investigation continues into a city councilor who bought stock in team owner John Moores' company right before voting for the city's $211 million stadium financing package. Meanwhile, former ballpark backer Mark Aguirre has charged the city with misleading voters in its 1998 stadium referendum, saying that costs could be 50% higher over the next 30 years, thanks to rising cost projections and interest rates. "That is not what we conveyed to the voters," Aguirre said, calling for the Padres ownership to assume responsibility for all costs over the $20.7 million a year originally budgeted for the project. Delays in finding a developer for a large bay-front hotel, which was supposed to generate about $5 million a year toward paying off the stadium bonds, have further imperiled the project's finances. . . . San Diego isn't doing well with its last stadium deal, either. In 1995, the city agreed to buy unsold Chargers tickets if attendance at the football team's games sunk below 60,000, as part of a new lease and publicly financed reconstruction of Qualcomm Stadium. In the Chargers' first four home games, two of them preseason contests, the city spent $4.84 million to purchase unsold tickets, and was on the verge of exhausting the emergency fund set aside for that purpose. . . .

After yet another self-imposed deadline passed Oct. 5, Philadelphia Mayor John Street insisted that he still was intent on spending $1.29 billion for new stadiums for the Phillies and Eagles. "I think we may have some information Council members don't have at this time," said Street. "Some of it can be explained. Some of it we don't want to explain." The Philadelphia city council has committed to spending $103 million for upgrades to Veterans Stadium and the purchase of the Eagles' new training facility. . . .

A September 10 article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer calculated the costs and benefits of the $470 million Gateway complex, which includes the Indians' Jacobs Field and the Cavs' Gund Arena. Their findings: "Gateway is sucking up public money," with $125 million in cost overruns costing Cuyahoga County about $9 million a year, with another 20 years to go. The city of Cleveland loses $2-3 million a year on the parking garages it built for the complex. And smokers pay about 5 cents more for each a pack of cigarettes, drinkers an additional 2 cents per glass of beer for the "sin tax" that helped fund the facilities. Job creation statistics in the Gateway neighborhood have risen, but no faster than in the rest of the metropolitan region; one reason may be that sin-tax revenues targeted for economic development were instead diverted to pay for stadium cost overruns. --October 13, 2000

Padres Call Halt to Stadium Construction: The San Diego Padres are set to suspend construction of their new stadium Oct. 2, as delays continue in the sale of municipal bonds to fund the project. Voters approved $225 million in city funding for the project in 1998 (the stadium's total pricetag is currently at $450 million, up from $411 million at the time of the vote), but it was subsequently revealed that a city councilwoman, Valerie Stallings, had just bought stock in a software company controlled by Padres owner John Moores at the time she voted for the deal. With a federal probe underway, the city has been unable to let the bonds, and $10 million in interim funding from the city treasury is due to run out at month's end.

There are also questions about whether city hotel tax revenues, which would be used to pay off the ballpark financing, will be meet the city's optimistic projections over the 30-year life of the bonds. "We could be looking at a city near bankruptcy in the next five years if we don't get a handle on financing," former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor told San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Don Bauder. "It's unfortunate that they started building that ballpark knowing they didn't have financing. Where is the auditor? Where is the city attorney? You don't start building a house until you have the financing to complete it.". . . The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that after just three home games, two of them exhibitions, the San Diego Chargers have sold so few tickets that they've already gone through $3.35 million of the $5 million in a city reserve fund to pay the team's ticket guarantee. Under the guarantee deal, signed in 1996, if non-luxury-seat attendance drops below 60,000, the city must buy all unused tickets at face value. Last year, the ticket guarantee cost the city $6.15 million -- $450,000 more than the team paid in rent. . . .

Lambeau Field, historic home of the Green Bay Packers, will be receiving a $295 million overhaul after Brown County voters approved a half-cent sales-tax hike by a 53%-47% margin Sept. 12. Next up: a November referendum on whether the city of Green Bay should sell naming rights to the stadium, and split the proceeds evenly with the team. (Lambeau Field is owned by the city, the Packers by a private non-profit corporation.) . . . The Boston Herald reported last Thursday that the Boston Red Sox may be considering rebuilding Fenway Park where it stands, as they struggle to come up with the $352 million in private financing necessary for their planned replacement stadium across the street. The next day, team project manager James Healey retorted, "We are not going to look at that." Neighborhood residents and preservation activists have proposed two different plans for renovating Fenway Park, saying either would be far cheaper than a new stadium while maintaining the ballpark's historic and aesthetic value. . . . Pro sports aren't the only industry that relies heavily on public subsidies, according to several recent articles. Use of tax-exempt bonds for stadiums construction and tax deductions for everything from ticket purchases to bowl game sponsorships add up to at least a $50 million-a-year taxpayer subsidy to college sports, according to calculations by the Philadelphia Inquirer. And a USA Today report found that college bowl games alone receive $4.5 million a year in direct government subsidies, ranging from shares of hotel and car-rental taxes to the sale of commemorative license plates. . . .

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani renewed his pitch for a $1 billion domed stadium on Manhattan's West Side this week, saying he doesn't care if the stadium is used by the Jets, the Mets, the Yankees, or the 2012 Olympics. But Gov. George Pataki, who controls the state authority on whose land the stadium would be built, ruled out at least one of those possibilities: "If the idea is to move the Yankees from the Bronx, I would oppose it strenuously. It could not be part of any of this proposal." . . . Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura reiterated his opposition to using public money for a new Twins ballpark. "[The Metrodome] is younger than my [21-year-old] son, and I still consider my son a kid," he said. "It would be different if the dome was 25, 30 years old and falling apart. But this building is still very, very new." The Twins are reportedly still going ahead with plans to play some games next year in a temporary outdoor ballpark near the former site of their old Metropolitan Stadium. . . . ESPN.com's baseball guru Rob Neyer called attention this week to a quote from Cubs GM John Holland in the 1973 Official Baseball Guide: "I know we have reached the saturation point. If our payroll goes any higher, we just can't make it." Neyer noted that the 1973 Cubs had all of two players -- Ferguson Jenkins and Billy Williams -- making more than $100,000 a year. --September 23, 2000

Twins Stay Home! It sounded kinda crazy, and as it turned out, it was. The Minnesota Twins' proposal to play a three-game series in September at a temporary outdoor ballpark in suburban Bloomington died on August 18, when Major League Baseball rejected the plan as unworkable. The idea, first proposed earlier in the month, was for the team to erect a structure of temporary aluminum bleachers seating 25,000 fans, which the team insisted could be done for $1 million, to gain support for the Twins' demands for an open-air stadium to replace the Metrodome -- which itself was built to replace Metropolitan Stadium, a 46,000-seat open-air facility in suburban Bloomington. . . .

Boston Red Sox boosters have begun levying the move threat in their pitch for a new park: Will McDonough writes in today's Boston Globe that "If nothing changes, there will be no new Fenway Park. And, your humble servant predicts, when that possibility becomes reality, the Red Sox will be sold to the highest bidder. And the buyer/buyers can decide whether they want to keep the team in the present park, move it to the suburbs, or move it to another state." McDonough also notes that insiders say the new stadium plan has "a 30 percent chance at best" of succeeding, which may explain some of the urgency in finding new ways to scare the public into supporting the deal. Already this month, top lobbyist John Sasso and developer Robert Walsh publicly quit the Red Sox stadium effort, leading to speculation that the project may be on the verge of collapse. . . . At the same time, a design charette sponsored by Save Fenway Park! and the Fenway Community Development Corporation has come up with two renovation plans that would add seats and amenities to the old park without destroying it. The "preservation plan" would use the landmarking process to help fund a restoration and expansion of Fenway, while the "reconstruction plan" presents a more radical reworking of the building -- each for far less than the cost of a new stadium. For more details, see the Save Fenway Park website. . . .

The Red Sox have been busy on the litigation front, if nothing else. Earlier this month, team brass announced plans to sue Boston Magazine over an unauthorized cover story on Pedro Martinez -- unauthorized because in May the magazine had printed an article critical of the team's stadium demands. "We're happy to work with any media outlet that treats us fairly but they've consistently shown that they're not interested in doing that," team spokesperson Kevin Shea told the Boston Herald. A week later, a federal civil-rights suit against the city of Boston was narrowly averted after the mayor agreed to withdraw disciplinary action against two City Hall employees who showed up for work wearing buttons reading "No Contract, No Fenway" and "Millions for Fenway While City Workers Eat Hot Dogs." . . .

Pronouncements of the imminent demise of the Montreal Expos became increasingly insistent this week when managing partner Jeffrey Loria announced he would not be renewing the team's option on a plot of land that had been targeted for a new downtown stadium. While many sports columnists took this as a sign that Loria was about to move the team to the U.S. (with Northern Viriginia to focus of speculation), it could also be an indication of Loria's desperation to save every penny as the cash-strapped art dealer attempts to find enough money to buy out his Canadian limited partners. . . .

The Chicago Bears have reportedly agreed with the city of Chicago on a $550 million renovation of Soldier Field, of which $350 million would be paid for by the hotel/motel tax surcharge originally put in place to build new Comiskey Park for the White Sox. No word on lease terms or who would get stadium revenues. . . . New Jersey governor Christie Whitman has told the YankeeNets organization that the state will contribute $75 million toward a new downtown Newark arena for the New Jersey Nets and Devils; any more than that, she indicated, would need to be approved by a public referendum. . . . George Steinbrenner's stadium losing streak continues: the city of Columbus, Ohio, has backed off plans to build a new stadium for the Clippers minor-league team after polls showed overwhelming opposition to using public money. Though the team itself is owned by the county, Steinbrenner had threatened to pull the Yankees' affiliation with the club unless a new stadium was forthcoming. --August 26, 2000

Fenway Replacement Takes One Step Forward, One Back: After one day of public hearings, the Massachusetts state legislature voted on July 29 to approve $100 million in state money for the proposed new Boston Red Sox stadium. Despite opponents' hopes that enough state senators would vote against the project to deny it the necessary two-thirds majority, last-minute horse-trading appeared to be successful in pushing the deal through: State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, who had vocally opposed the project during the previous day's hearings, later explained her ultimate yes vote to constituents by saying that once she has successfully introduced some minor amendments to the bill (such as requiring the hiring of a community liaison by the Red Sox), "it was my political judgment that I could not then vote against the final version of the bill."

The battle now turns to the Boston city council, where seven of eleven members have committed to blocking the $212 million in city money necessary for the project. (With a two-thirds vote needed to approve eminent domain land takings, five no votes can block the deal.) There also remain questions as to whether the current $665 million deal will work even if it's approved: Red Sox CEO John Harrington was unable to get the legislature to approve amendments without which, team officials said, the team's $352 million share of the project would be "unfinanceable." And that pricetag could rise still further in coming weeks, with the discovery of high concentrations of benzopyrene and other carcinogens on one of the lots targeted for the new stadium complex. The stadium's planned opening has already been pushed back to the year 2005. . . . The Red Sox are reportedly considering a lawsuit against Boston Magazine for putting Sox hurler Pedro Martinez on the cover without the team's permission. "We're happy to work with any media outlet that treats us fairly but they've consistently shown that they're not interested in doing that," said team spokesperson Kevin Shea, an apparent reference to a May article in the magazine that criticized the Sox' stadium demands. . . .

The Minnesota Vikings need a new stadium, says their owner Red McCombs. Why? Because to renovate the Metrodome and raise its roof 50 feet to make room for more luxury suites would cost $358 million, according to architects Ellerbe Becket. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission insists a Metrodome renovation could be accomplished for $226 million. No word yet on who'd be expected to pay for any of this, though Minnesota House Speaker Steve Sviggum told reporters, "We're just not going to have the sports teams themselves have a news conference and then say, 'Yep, we're going to be there; we're going to do it for you.' If it would happen, it would only happen through the tremendous clamoring [of] the citizens." . . .

Montreal Expos managing partner Jeffrey Loria is buying out his other partners and taking full control of the team, but it's unclear what this will mean for the future of the franchise. Because Loria is a U.S. citizen with no love for Montreal (when attendants on an Air Canada flight earlier this year asked him to shut off his cell phone, Loria reportedly snapped, "No wonder everybody wants to leave Canada"), it's been speculated that he plans to spirit the team across the border, perhaps to Washington, D.C. or Northern Virginia. Neither of those regions has an acceptable baseball stadium, however. . . . Meanwhile, legendary minor-league owner Mike Veeck (son of legendary major-league owner Bill Veeck) is looking at starting a D.C. team in the independent Northern League; after the district turned down his request to lease RFK Stadium, the Senators' old home, Veeck is looking into building a 10,000-seat stadium for around $20 million. He hasn't said who'd provide the money. . . . City officials in Columbus, Ohio, are reconsidering plans to build a new stadium for the Columbus Clippers after a telephone poll of local residents found just 16.9% support the idea. Though the Clippers are owned by Franklin County, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has threatened to reaffiliate with another city if not given a new ballpark. . . .

Fans at the Houston Astros' new Enron Field July 23 were alarmed to see sheets of rain pouring down between the roof and an interior wall, sending patrons of the stadium's centerfield restaurant scattering for cover. "The thing leaks like a sieve," one witness told the Houston Press, which noted that the pro-stadium Houston Chronicle omitted mention of the incident in its game coverage. . . . The Green Bay Packers are offering to distribute 4,000 tickets to each home game in a lottery, if local voters approve a sales-tax hike to add more seats to perennially sold-out Lambeau Field "It may change some minds on the referendum," said team president Bob Harlan. "But more importantly, I honestly feel we're doing what we should be doing." --August 11, 2000

Fenway Follies on Beacon Hill: The Boston Red Sox and Massachusetts political leaders took 14 months to come up with a financing plan for the team's proposed new stadium, but when they did, it was a doozy. The 40,000-seat facility that the Sox want to replace Fenway Park clocked in at a staggering $664 million, which would make it easily the most expensive sports facility in U.S. history. (The Boston Phoenix, which would have its offices displaced by the new stadium, has predicted that rising land costs could send the final pricetag as high as $900 million.)

The deal was agreed to late in the evening of July 25 by Gov. Paul Cellucci, Mayor Tom Menino, State House Speaker Thomas Finneran, State Senate Leader Tom Birmingham, and Red Sox CEO John Harrington. Under the terms of the plan, the team would put up $352 million for stadium construction, while the state and city would spend $312 million in public money: $100 million from the state for infrastructure, and $212 million from the city for land acquisition and preparation and a 3,000-space parking garage.

Here's where it gets complicated. Because Mayor Menino insisted that the city receive payback of its "investment," the political leaders cobbled together a mishmash of revenue streams that could be said to achieve this: surcharges on tickets and luxury box sales, the redirection of sales tax revenue from within the ballpark, commitment of one-quarter of one percent of the city's hotel tax, the promise of $7 million a year in parking garage revenue, and a whopping $5-per-car surcharge on game-day parking within one mile of the new stadium. (Note that at least some of these -- the hotel tax and sales tax, certainly -- could in no way be said to be "payback," since they're coming from the city's own pocket.) The Red Sox management promised to pay any cost overruns, while simultaneously insisting that the team was beyond tapped out: "It may be impossible to overcome,'' club CEO John Harrington said of procuring private financing for its share of the project.

With just six days remaining before the legislature's July 31 adjournment, lawmakers hurriedly scheduled a public hearing on the proposal for July 28. Under the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House, stadium proponents and opponents gathered to debate the merits of the plan. Though land takings for the project are technically the purview of the Boston city council, many legislators' questions focused on the designation of "blight" necessary for eminent domain land seizure. Asked by hearing chair Sen. Dianne Wilkerson how the thriving Fenway district could be described as "blighted," the governor insisted a stadium could help prevent as-yet-nonexistent blight, while the mayor chimed in, "We don't mean 'blight' in the real sense of the word 'blight.'"

Following Cellucci and Menino to the microphones were close to a dozen Red Sox executives and consultants to make the case for the new stadium. But they had a surprise in their bag as well: a seven-point list of amendments the team was seeking, including a reduction in the city's "repayment" from $12.1 million to $11 million a year, and a guarantee that team profits from the new parking garage would be paid before city debts. Many legislators seemed taken aback by the new demands, with State Rep. Gloria Fox saying, "It looks like a deal in progress."

As the clock struck 3 pm, the podium had been filled with nothing but a steady stream of Red Sox management, elected officials, and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce. "I've been to a lot of these hearings," marveled Rob Sargent of MassPIRG, one of the local activists fighting to stop the stadium deal, "and I've never been to one where five hours into it, not one member of the public has gotten a chance to speak."

Once the public testimony commenced, speakers were carefully staggered between stadium proponents and opponents, despite the fact that the hearing's first five hours had been almost entirely taken up by the stadium's official boosters. Pro-stadium testimony mostly focused on how much the Sox meant to the community (former Red Sox second baseman Mike Andrews lauded the money the team gives to cancer research); on the opposition side, Univerity of Maryland economist Brad Humphries described his findings that city's per-capita incomes tended to drop between $8 and $31 per person following the construction of a new sports stadium. (Humphries attributed this in part to what he called the "WalMart effect," in which big companies draw disposable income away from smaller ones, driving them out of business.)

Even if the State House and Senate achieved the necessary two-thirds majority in their expected Monday vote, the Sox stadium saga may be far from over. Fenway neighborhood city councillor Michael Ross took the stand at the hearing to reaffirm the commitment of seven members of the council to block any eminent domain land taking for the project, effectively killing it. (Nine votes on the 13-member council are necessary for approval.) And as day turned into night in the hearing room on Friday, word circulated that Sox CEO John Harrington had presented his seven amendments to Finneran as a requirement for any deal, and been rebuffed. . . .

Houston Press writer Richard Connelly points out that the MLB Blue-Ribbon Commission's claims of operating losses for baseball teams should be taken with a grain of salt: "[Astros owner Drayton McLane claims] he lost $17 million last year. He's also, not to put too fine a point on it, a fucking billionaire. Forbes magazine tabbed his net worth at $1.1 billion in its most recent survey of the 400 richest Americans. Check our math, but $17 million is, what, 1.5 percent of $1.1 billion, right? Let's do some more figuring: The median income for a family of four in Houston this year is about $42,000, according to the U.S. Census. And 1.5 percent of $42,000 is $630. According to the annual survey by the sports-business publication Team Marketing Report, it costs a family of four $162 to attend an Astros game at Enron Field. So if that family tried to go to just four games this year, it'd take a bigger bite out of their finances than what McLane's whining about." . . .

The Blue-Ribbon Commission's report took more hits from sports economists interviewed by ESPN.com, the assembled experts laughing off notions that almost every team in baseball is running a loss. "Sports accounting is to accounting as military music is to music," Northeastern University law professor Roger Abrams told ESPN.com's Darren Rovell. "It's still accounting, but not quite." . . . Upcoming stadium referendum votes: September 12 in Green Bay, and November 7 in Houston. This will be the second vote in 12 months for Houston, where voters last fall rejected a Rockets arena plan that is almost identical to the current proposal. . . . Among the protests planned for this week's Republican convention in Philadelphia: on August 1, a group called Billionaires for Bush (or Gore) will perform a "corporate Feng Shui ritual" on the site of the proposed new Phillies stadium, and also auction off the naming rights to the Liberty Bell, as part of its "Million Billionaire March." --July 29, 2000

Nothing Doing: In June, the sports business pundits were predicting that both a Boston Red Sox stadium deal and the relocation of the Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C. would be in place "by the All-Star break" -- which passed this week without action on either front.

In Boston, the most important deadline wasn't the July 11 All-Star Game, but July 31, the final day of the state legislative session. With little more than two weeks to go, the Red Sox' $627 million ballpark plan is struggling for breath. After weeks of face-to-face negotiations with the team, Mayor Tom Menino offered $110 million toward the project ($30 million less than the team was asking) but insisted that the city recoup its expenses. Proposals ranged from a special baseball lottery to hotel taxes to a citywide parking surcharge, each of which is faces opposition from the governor, the state legislature, or local residents. A Boston Globe poll last week found that city residents opposed the team's proposed financing deal 43%-34%. "The bottom line is Bostonians don't want public money used for this project," pollster Gerry Chervinsky told the Globe.

And financing may be the least of the Red Sox' problems. According to an extensive report in the Boston Phoenix, the stadium plan would require seizing several acres of land via eminent domain -- and case law dating back to an aborted 1969 Boston stadium project has found that eminent domain cannot be used in Massachusetts for projects that primarily benefit private interests. Moreover, Save Fenway Park's Dan Wilson has indicated that stadium opponents could file a taxpayer lawsuit challenging any public expenditures or land takings. (The Phoenix, whose offices are in the path of the proposed stadium, also ran a four-page ad supplement provided by Citizens Against Stadium Subsidies in its current issue.) . . .

As for the Expos, their long-rumored move remains but a rumor. Neither D.C. nor Northern Virginia has any semblance of a stadium financing package in place, though both D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and Virginia Governor James Gilmore have expressed their support for building a big-league park. Loria, meanwhile, now reportedly attends Expos home games under the protection of bodyguards. . . .

The biggest actual news of the week was MLB's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Baseball Economics issuing its long-awaited report July 14. (The panel, which includes conservative columnist -- and Orioles and Padres board member -- George Will and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, was originally supposed to complete its work last December.) In addition to suggesting increased revenue sharing between high-revenue and low-revenue clubs, the panel recommended relocating franchises "when necessary to address the competitive issues facing the game." "Clubs that have little likelihood of securing a new ballpark or other revenue-enhancing activities should have the opportunity to relocate," said Mitchell. While there had been much talk that contraction -- folding two to four low-revenue franchises -- would be on the agenda of the owners meeting at which the report was released, panel member Paul Volcker would say only that it should be a "last resort." Baseball's last "blue ribbon" report on revenue sharing was rejected by high-revenue owners in 1993, which led directly to the player strike of 1994. . . .

The Newark Star-Ledger is reporting that the proposed arena for the Nets and Devils has risen in projected cost from $275 million to $325 million, with the teams' demands for public funds rising from $70 million to $125 million. New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman has yet to sign off on public expenditures for the project, and the city of Newark is reportedly unhappy with development deals the teams have cut in order to obtain land, leaving the arena very much up in the air. In a seemingly unrelated note, finalization the Devils' sale to George Steinbrenner's YankeeNets conglomerate has been postponed from July 12 until at least the end of the month. . . .

Yet another large-scale economic study has failed to find significant positive economic effects from building sports stadiums. University of Maryland-Baltimore County economics professors Dennis Coates and Brad Humphreys, who studied all 37 U.S. cities with one or more major-league baseball, football, or basketball franchises between 1969 and 1996, write in the Cato Institute journal Regulation, "Our research suggests that professional sports may be a drain on local economies rather than an engine of economic growth." Per-capita income appeared to have actually fallen in cities with pro sports teams. --July 14, 2000

Expos, A's, Padres Levy Move Threats: Ready the Ryder trucks: no fewer than three major league baseball teams are making noises about moving to new cities. Whether any of the relocation threats pan out remains to be seen -- over the last 28 years, more than half of all big-league teams have threatened at least once to move, yet none have gone through with it since the Washington Senators left for Arlington, Texas in 1972.

The most-rumored move involves the Montreal Expos, who are said to be heading south to the Washington, D.C., area following the crash and burn of their new ownership structure. An attempted ouster of new managing general partner Jeffrey Loria failed earlier this month; thanks to the arcane rules of limited partnerships, this means the team's limited partners must either meet Loria's cash call for $70 million, or sell him their shares in the team. Once in control of at least 75% of the club, Loria (who currently owns just 24%) can move the team wherever he likes.

Wherever he likes, that is, presuming he 1) finds a place to play, and 2) gets the necessary three-quarters approval of his fellow owners. Washington is the only city in the U.S. with a major-league-size baseball stadium standing vacant (RFK Stadium was abandoned by the Redskins several years back, and is now used solely by the D.C. United soccer club), so would fill the bill on that count, though Loria would no doubt demand a new ballpark with more luxury suites and concessions area within a few years. MLB approval could be harder to come by, especially with Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos sure to file a lawsuit charging that a D.C. club infringes his team's 75-mile territorial rights.

Next into the move threat pool were the Oakland A's, whose owners announced last week that they were investigating the possibility of a move to Santa Clara County -- that's Silicon Valley to most people. Plenty of stumbling blocks remain, however. First off, while a PricewaterhouseCoopers study commissioned by the private Santa Clara Stadium Group found major-league baseball to be "doable, revenue-wise," according to SCSG member Larry Stone, it's still unclear how the group would finance its planned $280 million stadium, or who would provide the additional land and infrastructure costs. Then there's the little matter of the San Francisco Giants, who claim territorial rights to Santa Clara based on their late-'80s dalliance with moving to the region. "Territories are territories," an MLB source told Sports Business Journal. "It's not going to change." (You listening, Jeffrey Loria?)

Finally, we have the San Diego Padres, who seem determined to provide a case study of why not to believe team promises to pay stadium cost overruns. Last week, Padres president Larry Lucchino said if the city doesn't come up with more money for their planned stadium, "the question of relocation will have to be addressed. I think that's a viable prospect." San Diego voters approved $225 million in public money toward a new Padres stadium in November 1998, but that figure is now at $299 million -- $10 million of which the San Diego city council agreed to forward to the Padres to meet Lucchino's demands for interim funding.

(Recall that in 1996, the Seattle Mariners successfully pulled the same caper on the state of Washington, getting an $80 million hike in their already-approved stadium deal by threatening to move to Vancouver, British Columbia. When the stadium later came in yet another $100 million over budget, the Mariners sued the state, arguing that the added charges were not "cost overruns" but "unanticipated capital expenditures.") . . .

In the NBA, meanwhile, recent reports of pending team moves appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Several news outlets had the Houston Rockets (along with the WNBA's Houston Comets, who share ownership with the NBA club) all but signed, sealed, and delivered to Louisville, Kentucky in recent weeks. Whoops -- turns out Louisville's plan to have the city, state, and county each provide $30 million toward a new arena was never approved by the state and county governments: both have indicated in the past week that they have no interest in putting public money toward luring the Rockets. "I have not been convinced that this is a good deal for the taxpayers, whether city, county or state," said state House Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark. "We have so many other pressing needs, I think it would be very difficult for the state to blindly commit [to arena money]." . . . Houston, meanwhile, is reportedly close to putting another arena proposal before voters this fall. This one would build a $175 million arena entirely with public money, with the Rockets and Comets putting up $8.5 million a rent payments, which would pay off about half the necessary bonds. . . .

As for the Charlotte Hornets, another prospective peripatetic, the city of Charlotte's attempts to bargain down team ownership's arena demands appear to be working. Hornets co-owner Ray Wooldridge, who initially proposed that a new arena be built entirely with public money, then offered to kick in about 25% of the cost, now says that $90 million, or about half the project's cost, is the "top" of what he can pay. Further final answers will be issued as events warrant. . . .

Philadelphia Mayor John Street's plans for a new Phillies stadium in Chinatown seem to be getting further and further from reality. Last week, Chinatown councilman Frank DiCicco announced his opposition to the plan, three days after his constituents packed a city council meeting to express their opposition to a ballpark in their neighborhood. On June 26, Street held a rare televised press conference, only to announce that he was no closer to cutting stadium deals acceptable to the Phillies and Eagles -- and that the total cost of the twin projects was now up to a staggering $1.229 billion. Nonetheless, Street insisted that "we're going to still try to do this thing." . . . Two Boston city councilors have proposed a scratch-off lottery game to finance a new stadium for the Red Sox, but state legislators, who would have to approve such a project, are wary of siphoning off revenues from the local schools and fire and police departments that now receive all lottery proceeds. "It's not going to happen," one state legislative leader told the Boston Globe. "It's not even on the radar screen." . . .

Win or lose their November vote on a sales-tax hike to fund renovations to Lambeau Field, the Green Bay Packers warn they're going to be demanding public improvements to the structure. "There's well over $100 million worth of work that has to be done on the stadium," team president Robert Harlan said. "If the referendum would fail, it doesn't mean that the stadium would stand for 30 years on its own." Harlan declined to provide any evidence to back up his claim. . . .

Finally, the Florida Marlins haven't made much noise about moving (not yet, at least), but there have been widespread rumors that the team will conduct yet another "fire sale" of its high-priced players following the season's conclusion if no new stadium deal is approved. Billionaire team owner John Henry addressed questions about a coming player selloff as only he can, telling reporters: "Light is a particle and a wave, but logic would tell you it can't be both. The fact is, it is both. In our situation, it's a dilemma. It's a difficult choice; none works. It's not quite as esoteric as it sounds. It's not talking out of both sides of my mouth." --June 30, 2000

Protests Continue in Philly, Boston: Philadelphia Mayor John Street's planned stadium for the Philadelphia Phillies is faring even worse than the team's chances in the National League East. On June 8, opponents of Street's plan to put a stadium in that city's Chinatown stepped up their protests with the neighborhood's first general strike since World War II. Local stores closed from 2 to 4 p.m. as 2,000 people marched on City Hall, blowing whistles and banging drums and cymbals.

"They deny money for the schools, yet they can come up with millions for a stadium in Chinatown?" Anh Ha, one of dozens of high school students who left school for the day to join the protest, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "A lot of kids don't have what they need to have for school. There is no toilet paper in the bathroom stalls. The clocks don't even work. They need to get their priorities straight."

The general strike came the same week as Pennsylvania state Sen. Vince Fumo estimated the proposed stadium would cost a staggering $685 million, $125 million more than previous projections. "Chinatown, like all Chinatowns across the country, has been targeted for downtown development projects that have no intention of building a residential neighborhood community," says Helen Gym, president of Asian Americans United and a protest leader. Her neighborhood, she notes, has already been fenced in by an expressway, a convention center, and two malls, and narrowly fought off a proposed federal prison. "So when stuff like this comes up, we know. We've got 30 years of knowing."

Whether it was the protests or the rising costs, Street appeared to be faltering as the days ticked away to scheduled city council hearings on June 20. After saying for weeks that he would have a stadium finance package in place by June 15, the mayor abruptly switched gears last Friday, declaring, "We did not say we would have a conceptual agreement for City Council by June 15. I said we would have a conceptual agreement by the end of June. On June 15, I intend to come out and tell you what I think can happen."

But on June 15, Street refused to reveal even his cost estimates for the stadium, though admitting he had a number in mind. "It's going to be costly," Street said, "but the costs don't destroy the project." When asked whether taxpayers had a right to know how much he was planning to spend for a Phillies stadium, the mayor replied, "They have a right to know, but not today." . . .

In Boston, meanwhile, the Red Sox' plans for a $627 million stadium ($275 million of which would be paid for by the city and state) to replace Fenway Park has hit similarly rough waters.

On June 9, the Fenway neighborhood's city councilor, Michael Ross, took ten of his colleagues on a trolley tour of the proposed site, and at least six said they intend to give the Red Sox plan the thumbs-down -- one more than the minimum required to kill the eminent-domain land takings necessary to clear the way for a stadium. "It will be in the middle of an existing neighborhood," said Councilor Maura Hennigan as the trolley rolled down Boylston Street, past the planned stadium site. "We should be investigating other sites where that wouldn't have to happen." A special council hearing on the ballpark is scheduled for Monday. . . .

As Montreal Expos managing partner Jeffrey Loria and his limited partners headed for a showdown over control of the club, sports page pundits were quick to pronounce the team headed out of town: to Washington, D.C., Charlotte, N.C., Portland, Ore., or the New Jersey Meadowlands. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig bolstered the rumors by telling the Washington Times, "There's no question that if a club can't make it and demonstrates that it's tried to do everything it can, no question it has to move."

It seems unlikely that the Expos will be going anywhere by next year, however. Of the prospective relocation sites, none except Washington have a stadium in place or even in the works. And while D.C. could theoretically house a team at RFK Stadium while building the modern ballpark that Loria would no doubt demand, they would also be facing a lawsuit from Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, whose 75-mile territorial rights encompass all of the District.

It's also unclear whether Loria could move the club even if he found a place to take them. Team by-laws require control of 70% of the franchise for a relocation, and Loria has just 24%. This is the heart of the power struggle currently brewing between Loria and the other owners who brought him in to lead the club last year: New York art dealer Loria has been quick to spend money (on high-priced free agents of dubious talent, and most recently by proposing a retractable roof for the team's planned $200 million ballpark), while seeking an additional $70 million in investments by his partners. . . .

The final bill for Detroit's Comerica Park has come in, and it's $361 million -- nearly $100 million over budget. Among the items that drove up the cost: a $3.2 million fountain in centerfield, a $1 million for carousel and Ferris wheel, and $8 million for such decorative items as giant tigers and oversized bats that flank the stadium entrances. "Some of the cost overruns I saw around the country were in cement and steel. I was cautious about those," Tigers owner Mike Ilitch told the Detroit Free Press. "But if I wanted to add something to the stadium to enhance it, I was willing to pay for that." Exactly who's paying for the increased cost is unclear: while Ilitch took out a $145 million bank loan to put into the stadium project, increased revenues -- including parking fees on land leased to him by the city for $1, ticket prices that have more than doubled from Tiger Stadium's, and savings from the free rent the team gets at the new park -- are expected to offset much if not all of Ilitch's expenses. . . .

A group of Minnesota business executives, including Minneapolis Star Tribune publisher John Schueler Norwest Bank Minnesota CEO Jim Campbell, is investigating the possibility of building a scaled-down ballpark for the Twins with private funds. The group has consulted with Andrews University architecture professor Philip Bess, author of the neighborhood-ballpark manifesto "City Baseball Magic," to help devise plans for a park that would be both inexpensive and community-friendly.

Instead of being "an anchor to an entertainment zone," Bess told the Star Tribune, a new ballpark should have the "characteristics of a neighborhood," with housing, retail and public spaces. Bess says such a park, with under 40,000 seats, could be built for $150 million, but other estimates are much higher. If nothing else, "It puts a whole new coat of chrome on it," said Duane Benson, director of the Minnesota Business Partnership, which represents 100 large Minnesota companies. "It's unique enough that it's generating some interest in learning more about it." . . .

Florida Marlins owner John Henry was similarly considering building a cut-rate stadium with private dollars, but his interest didn't last long. On June 6, eight weeks after he asked architects HOK Sport to look into building a 25,000-seat baseball park that could later be expanded to 40,000 seats with a retractable roof, Henry called off the investigation, deciding that revenues from a smaller ballpark wouldn't be enough to offset the projected $180 million cost. One day later, Henry later told the Miami Herald the team faces "a very dark situation. The community has basically given up on the Marlins. The franchise is in jeopardy." Asked where he would go from here, the Marlins' owner showed his facility for the non-threat threat, replying that it "certainly is an option to sell to someone out of state, but I love this organization. If I start thinking in terms of giving up, it's very hard to do what needs to be done." --June 16, 2000

Boston, Philly Stadium Fights Heat Up: The Boston Red Sox announced their long-awaited stadium financing plan on May 19 -- but it was short on details and got a cool reception from local politicians. Under the plan, the city and state would put up $275 million for land acquisition and infrastructure as part of a project costing a total of $627 million. (Both the Boston Phoenix and the grassroots group Citizens Against Stadium Subsidies have estimated that increased land costs could ultimately drive the project's cost over $900 million.)

Massachusetts political leaders, including those previously in favor of a new stadium, criticized the plan for demanding too much public money with too little to shot for it. House Speaker Tom Finneran rejected the team's plan to have the state build new parking garages while the team kept all parking revenue, declaring, "We are done with corporate welfare." And Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, previously a project backer, said, "I'm not going to risk mortgaging the city's future. I want to make sure whatever I invest in the Red Sox comes back to the city. I can't stop building schools and fixing playgrounds." Menino has recently begun insisting on a "100% return" on any city funds, which would come to about $13 million a year. (For more on the Fenway debates, see John Brattain's SportsTalk interview with Neil deMause.) . . .

In Philadelphia, meanwhile, several hundred demonstrators from Chinatown marched on City Hall May 19 to protest Mayor John Street's plan to put a new Phillies ballpark in their community. "Cultural genocide is wrong," said Debbie Wei of Asian Americans United, one of the member groups of the newly formed Stadium Out of Chinatown coalition. "And using taxpayer money to commit cultural genocide is wrong." Rev. Thomas Betz, assistant pastor of the neighborhood's Holy Redeemer Church, has threatened lawsuits and civil disobedience to stop the project.

The Phillies are not enamored with the Chinatown site either: they've expressed a preference for a new ballpark near their current Veterans Stadium home at the south end of town. Meanwhile, both the Phillies and Eagles have sizable consolation prizes awaiting them: if the city does not approve new stadiums by November, it has agreed to but the Eagles' new practice facility for $23 million and spend $80 million on upgrading the Phillies' Veterans Stadium. . . . City council hearings on the Chinatown ballpark plan are set to begin June 20. . . .

Rumors of the Montreal Expos' imminent demise may be exaggerated. News outlets have been reporting that the club could be moved or even folded after the season, after the Montreal Gazette reported that the team is facing a cash flow problem. "We can't let it drag on, obviously," said Patrice Ryan of National Public Relations, a Montreal p.r. firm hired by the team's minority owners to represent them in negotiations with managing partner Jeffrey Loria. "They (the ownership group) need to pay salaries. They have to come to some sort of accommodation." This came shortly after Expos VP David Samson (Loria's stepson) told the Gazette regarding much-delayed stadium plans, "We don't have the financing lined up. We don't have the design. We have nothing." Loria, who has spent his first months as Expos owner signing high-priced players of dubious quality, is now reportedly considering adding a costly roof to the stadium project; the payroll crisis may merely be a way for the other owners to stop Loria from spending their money with abandon. . . .

The city of Louisville is offering to build a $200 million arena with "all the amenities that an NBA team demands" for the Houston Rockets if they agree to relocate. The Houston Sports Authority has countered with a plan to build a $175 million arena for the team, which would pay a hefty $8.5 million in annual rent to help offset the construction cost. . . . As for the Charlotte Hornets, team owner Ray Wooldridge upped his offer for private financing of a new $250 million arena from zero to 25%. City councillors are still cool to the idea, and some are suggesting a public referendum to settle the matter. . . .

The Oakland Raiders are no longer suing the city of Oakland for $825 million; now the team wants $1.1 billion. Owner Al Davis claims that city officials misled the team about projected ticket sales when it returned from Los Angeles in 1995. . . . The independent minor-league St. Paul Saints, who have on occasion outdrawn the Minnesota Twins across the river, are looking at $3 million in renovations to Midway Stadium -- and plan to finance the construction themselves. (They may try to sell naming rights to the facility, however.) The team had earlier considered seeking a new ballpark, but decided against it when polls showed that fans preferred the old one. . . . The Houston Astros have reduced seating by about 1,000 at their new Enron Field after discovering that several hundred seats had obstructed views. . . . New YankeeNets president Harvey Schiller showed he knows his lines his first month on the job, threatening that if the state of New Jersey doesn't come up with $70 million for a new arena for the Nets and Devils, "Other places may want the teams." . . . Likewise, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who recently told a Minneapolis audience that he would not support the Vikings staying in Minnesota unless a new stadium is in place by 2004. The Vikings' Metrodome lease runs through 2011. --June 3, 2000

New Stadiums Soak Fans: Three cities opened new baseball stadiums this month: San Francisco's Pacific Bell Park, Detroit's Comerica Park, and Houston's Enron Field. But along with the bells and whistles (Comerica features a ferris wheel, Enron a larger-than-life train, Pac Bell trained dogs to chase homerun balls that fall in the bay) and increased tax burdens (Comerica and Enron received mostly public funds; Pac Bell was 90% privately financed) have come record ticket price hikes. According to Team Marketing Report, the average ticket price in Houston rose 50.4% (from $13.30 to $20.01), in San Francisco 75.2% (from $12.12 to $21.24) -- and in Detroit a whopping 103.0% (from $12.23 to $24.83), the first team ever to more than double ticket prices in one season.

Add in the Seattle Mariners, whose ticket prices jumped 23.3% with their full-time move into Safeco Field this year, and the four teams with new parks hiked prices an average of 63%. Among the other 26 teams, meanwhile, ticket prices rose a mere 2%.

The price hikes -- and growing disillusionment with the new wave of "mallparks" -- could be starting to affect attendance figures. While much press attention has focused on the success of Pac Bell Park, which sold out its entire schedule before the season had opened, things are not quite so rosy in Detroit, where new Comerica Park has sold just 16,000 season tickets -- a new Tigers record, but a far cry from the figures racked up by some other new ballparks in recent years. After a sold-out Opening Day, attendance hovered in the low 20,000s, which would make Comerica the least successful new ballpark to open since the Minneapolis Metrodome in 1982. . . . The numbers are less dramatic, but other cities are also showing signs that stadium honeymoons are growing shorter. Seattle's Safeco Field has seen ticket sales drop off sharply after last July's opening, with this year's opening day not even selling out until the last moment. And in Denver, season ticket sales at five-year-old Coors Field are off 15% from last year, when the 50,000-seat stadium sold out only 11 of its 81 games. . . .

"Stadium Games: Fifty Years of Big League Greed and Bush League Boondoggles," the lengthy tome by Minneapolis Star Tribune sports writer Jay Weiner that hit bookstores last month, has plenty to say about the stadium mania that has gripped the Twin Cities over the last four decades. But it's one particular bombshell that's made headlines nationwide: the revelation that the staff of then-governor Arne Carlson told the Minnesota Twins to threaten to move out of town in order to grease the skids for a new stadium deal. Carlson's chief of staff, Bernie Omann, told Weiner that "we wanted some type of -- I shouldn't say ultimatum -- but something that we could say, 'Look, you've told us you have to move. You've said this is going to happen. We need you to do that.' And they did." . . .

A study released in March by the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group and Save Fenway Park! examined an earlier economic report sponsored by the Boston Red Sox to bolster their ballpark demands, and found it "deeply flawed." "Major League Steal" uncovered errors in both attendance projections and out-of-state tourism estimates in the earlier C.H. Johnson Consulting report that had promised $116 million in annual spending as a result of a new stadium. The Sox struck back with a four-page paid "advertorial" insert in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald the Sunday before their home opener, touting the supposed economic benefits of a new ballpark. It was followed over the next few days by a flood of pro-stadium columns in those papers, including Globe columnist Bob Ryan's assertion that "If there isn't a new ballpark by 2006, there more than likely won't be any Boston Red Sox."

Meanwhile, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who had been one of the prime backers of a new stadium for the Boston Red Sox, did a partial turnaround on March 31, saying that the team should seek more private financing for their planned $600 million stadium project, including money from Major League Baseball. Menino also indicated that he would want to see a return on any investment the city made in a ballpark: "The city would have to make money or at least be sure we would get our money back and nothing I've seen has convinced me of that."

Local officials seem determined to hold Menino to his word: eight city councilors announced April 13 that they would block any stadium financing unless a "credible plan" is presented for recovering all public expenditures. And Republican leaders in the State Senate have threatened to filibuster action on a new ballpark until the state budget is passed. "This project could involve hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers' money," Senate Minority Leader Brian Lees said. "I think we should at least get an idea of how much money we will have in the budget first." . . .

Residents of the Fenway whose businesses would be forcibly removed to make way for a new stadium were cheered by a March ruling in Springfield, Mass., against the seizure of land by eminent domain for a proposed minor-league ballpark. Hamden Superior Court Judge Constance Sweeney ruled that Springfield's attempt to take a downtown shopping mall and machine shop to create a ballpark did not serve a valid "public purpose." . . . According to various polls, between 57% and 69% of Massachusetts residents oppose the use of public money for a replacement for Fenway. . . .

The St. Louis Cardinals drew a team record 3.2 million fans in 1999, and are on pace to break that mark this season. "We couldn't be more thrilled with the support we received," team president Mark Lamping said the first week of April. Or perhaps they could -- on April 7, the Cardinals announced their desire for a new downtown stadium costing $370 million, two-thirds of which would be paid for by state tax givebacks. "For the Cardinals to be a great franchise, a new ballpark is critical for St. Louis," said team owner Bill DeWitt Jr. . . .

Sports Business News notes a stat that makes clear how bad an investment new ballparks are if you're paying the bills yourself: the San Francisco Giants will need to draw crowds of 30,000 or more a night for 20 straight years to pay off Pacific Bell Park's mortgage, estimated at $18 million annually. . . . Concessions stands, though, are still certain money-makers. Cost to the Tigers of a hot dog, according to Joe Falls in Baseball Weekly: less than 25 cents. Retail price: $2.75. And the beers, which cost the team less than one dollar, sell at Comerica Park for a whopping $7.25. . . .

It may be the "world's most famous arena," as its P.A. announcers incessantly call it, but Madison Square Garden is "beginning to age," according to James Dolan, chief executive of Cablevision, which owns the Garden, Knicks, Rangers, Liberty and the Madison Square Garden cable sports network. Dolan's solution: a new arena, either on the same site or on the nearby West Side railyards, already targeted for either a baseball or football stadium by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The current Garden, the fourth by that name, was opened in 1968 on the former site of historic Penn Station, and received a $200 million renovation in the late '80s. In 1982, then-mayor Ed Koch exempted the Garden's owners from property tax in exchange for keeping the teams in town, a subsidy that has since then amounted to more than $128 million. . . .

No sooner had Florida Marlins owner John Henry decided upon a $4-per-passenger-per-day cruise ship tax as the means of funding a $400 million downtown ballpark than the cruise industry struck back, threatening to move out of Miami if the tax went through. Then, on Opening Day, Gov. Jeb Bush announced he would veto the cruise ship tax, effectively killing the plan. Henry now says he has no backup plan, and is threatening to conduct the team's second "fire sale" of players in three years if a new park is not forthcoming. . . . When the Seattle Kingdome was imploded March 26 to make way for a new Seahawks football stadium, it left behind more than a pile of rubble: Seattle taxpayers still owe $25 million on construction bonds for the 24-year-old stadium. . . . Legal challenges to the San Diego Padres' new ballpark will likely delay its planned April 2002 opening until later that year. Meanwhile, residents of buildings on the planned stadium site are being evicted, even as bonds to finance the project remain in limbo. . . .

Charlotte Hornets owner Ray Woolridge is unhappy with the 12-year-old Charlotte Coliseum, and he thinks the public should pay for a replacement. According to the Charlotte Observer, Woolridge wants $70 million in funding from the state and $150 million from the city. The reaction of Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess: "Are they out of their minds?" . . . YankeeNets, the owner of the New Jersey Nets who recently purchased the New Jersey Devils, reached a purchase agreement April 4 with the owner of disputed land in downtown Newark, clearing the way for a $275 million arena to be paid for be a yet-to-be decided combination of private and state financing. About 100 housing units and 50 businesses will have to be torn down to make way for the arena complex. . . .

The months-long battle over Brooklyn's Parade Grounds came to an apparent end last month with the announcement by Brooklyn borough president Howard Golden that he would fund $10.3 million in renovations to the ballfields in that city park. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had insisted on building a minor-league baseball stadium in a portion of the park as the price of financing restoration of the fields. The Mets, parent club of the minor-league franchise, are now fighting off a lawsuit to prevent construction at their backup ballpark site, St. John's University in Queens. . . . The "mini-Mets'" permanent home in Brooklyn will apparently be built, however: New York's city council approved $30 million in funding for a minor-league ballpark at the site of Coney Island's old Steeplechase Park. The 6,500-seat park, where the team will play for free unless attendance tops 3,000 per game, has been bitterly opposed by Golden, who wanted an amateur sports complex on the site. . . .

After heavy lobbying by team representatives and key politicians, the state of Arizona approved a bill to provide $161 million in tax money for a new Arizona Cardinals stadium. (The rest of the estimated $331 million cost would be split between the Cardinals and the city where the stadium is located, which is still to be determined.) The issue will now go before voters in November; a similar stadium proposal was defeated by voters in Mesa, Arizona, in 1997, and a December poll showed 85% of Arizona voters opposed to the plan. . . . The Los Angeles Dodgers recently completed $50 million in renovations to their privately owned Dodger Stadium, mostly involving the addition of corporate suites and other premium seating. But Dodger officials did not discount the possibility of building a new ballpark sometime in the near future: "We feel this addresses our needs for the immediate future," said Fred Coons, the team director of business development. "We hope it's a long solution, but we can't be sure what's going to happen in five to 10 years from now." . . . Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes has warned that cost overruns on the CIncinnati Bengals' now $355-million stadium have stretched the city's bonding capacity to the breaking point, and imperiled its ability to raise money for the planned Reds baseball stadium. --April 26, 2000

Send Money Or We'll Shoot This Team: Green Bay Packers president Bob Harlan leveled his doomsday weapon at Brown County residents on February 29, threatening that the city could lose its team if voters fail to approve a 0.5% sales tax hike to fund renovations to Lambeau Field. Since the non-profit Packers are bound by their bylaws to remain in Green Bay as long as they exist, Harlan's threat had a twist: the team, he speculated, could go bankrupt in a few years' time, at which point the NFL could rescind the franchise and grant it to another city, such as Los Angeles. Sports industry reaction was largely a hearty guffaw -- L.A. has shown no interest in shelling out public money to lure a new NFL franchise -- but local media reports were full of Harlan's non-threat. . . .

The Packers aren't the only team playing the move threat card: NBA Commissioner David Stern has likewise upped the ante in the Houston Rockets' campaign for a new arena, saying "it's certain that the team will be relocated" if a new building is not underway when the team's lease expires in 2003. Last November, Houston voters rejected a plan that would have seen Rockets owner Les Alexander put in about half the construction costs of a $155 million arena, while reaping virtually all the revenue; Stern called the failed plan "one of the largest team participations that I know of," apparently forgetting the NBA arenas in Philadelphia, Boston, Charlotte, and other cities that were built almost entirely with private money. . . . Rumored relocation sites for the Rockets have included New Orleans, Louisville, and Las Vegas, but Stern reiterated recently that the NBA will not allow a team in Nevada while betting on pro basketball continues there. . . .

Baltimore, meanwhile, is apparently out of any coming Rockets derby: After devoting more than $400 million to the construction of stadiums for the Orioles and Ravens, the state of Maryland says it's not interested in bidding for an NBA franchise. "There are many other things that are a higher priority this year, from higher education, to K-12 education to fighting lead paint, all of which are getting significant increases in funding in Baltimore," a spokesman for Gov. Parris Glendening told the Baltimore Sun. "I'd love to have a basketball team," added Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. "But there are bigger life-and-death issues facing this city than bringing a new basketball team to town. Lacking state support for an arena, we just don't have the money right now." . . .

Florida Marlins owner John Henry stepped up his stadium campaign on February 3 with a closed-door meeting with top political leaders at the Biscayne Bay Marriott Hotel. That's closed-door as in "no media allowed," as the Miami New Times' Jim Mullin found out when he was forcibly ejected from the premises, despite brandishing a copy of the state's Sunshine Law requiring open access to meetings where public officials are present. At the meeting, according to Mullin (who was relayed a report by accomplices inside), Henry pitched a 40,000-seat stadium with retractable roof to be placed in downtown Bicentennial Park; as for how much it would cost or who would pay for it, Henry didn't say. . . .

After threatening to move his hockey team unless he received federal tax subsidies, a threat that led to a much-criticized and quickly abandoned plan to give across-the-board tax breaks to Canadian NHL teams, Ottawa Senators owner Rod Bryden has apparently decided that he can make a go of it after all -- by raising ticket prices 17%. "I think it is necessary and appropriate that I should make every attempt to have the fans fairly treated before I go back to them and say: 'I'm sorry, I know it's not fair, but you have to decide; if you want the sport here you have to pay,'" Bryden told the Canadian Press. The Senators will also be receiving $3.9 million a year in property tax abatements from the city and province. . . . Production crews at Toronto's Air Canada Centre were reportedly told not to show NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on the arena scoreboard during the league All-Star Game, for fear he would be booed by the crowd. . . . Meanwhile, Kansas City, one rumored relocation site for the Senators had they moved, didn't do much for its reputation as a hockey hotbed with news that its minor-league franchise may consider relocating when its lease is up. . . .

The Boston Phoenix reports in a 2/25 editorial that, thanks to rising land costs and higher interest rates, the Red Sox' planned stadium project is likely to exceed $700 million. The team still hasn't said how much of that would be public financing -- and isn't likely to right now, what with the state of Massachusetts already facing at least a billion dollars worth of cost overruns on its controversial Big Dig highway project. . . . Stadium opponents in Boston were cheered by a Massachusetts superior court decision February 29 that the city of Springfield had improperly used eminent domain to seize private property for a minor-league baseball stadium, which did not amount to a "public purpose," according to Judge Constance Sweeney. . . .

After failing in his attempts to put a temporary minor-league ballpark for a New York Mets farm club in a public park in Brooklyn, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has turned his attentions to St. John's University in Queens, where the city would build a $5.5 million ballpark for the single-A club. Response from local residents has been similarly negative: 200 marched to St. John's campus on February 17 to protest the project, and local homeowners groups plan a lawsuit charging the 3,500-seat ballpark would violate local zoning laws. . . . The Mets have quietly moved back the target date for their new ballpark to 2004, according to their media guide. With public opposition high, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani running for U.S. Senate this year and city council speaker Peter Vallone for mayor next year, plans for new stadiums for both the Mets and Yankees appear to have ground to a halt. . . .

St. Louis may have won the Super Bowl, but columnist Derrick Jackson says the city had already won the Civic Suicide Bowl after turning over hundreds of millions of dollars to get the Rams to relocate from L.A. "As the Rams' fortunes and fortune fly higher than a TWA 747, public school children in St. Louis are grounded," wrote Jackson in the Boston Globe. "The system is under a state threat to lose its accreditation in two years if it does not improve. While the top seven administrators have salaries that total more than $500,000 yearly, there are 254 teacher vacancies in a system in which the average salary is lower than the statewide average. There are hundreds more teachers who are not experienced or certified in the subject they teach." . . . L.A. Kings co-owner Ed Roski Jr. says he's looking to buy an existing NFL team and move it to a renovated L.A. Coliseum, naming the Arizona Cardinals, New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills as likely candidates. Roski says the Coliseum renovations would be funded largely by a ticket tax on fans and a loan from the NFL. . . .

The Clinton Administration has proposed extended the period of time over which pro sports teams can depreciate player contracts, from five years to 15. If approved by Congress, this would reduce the tax benefits of the depreciation loophole, which can allow profitable teams to avoid corporate taxes by showing a loss on paper. . . . Cablevision has reportedly cooled on its interest in buying the New York Mets; no indication whether this development is related to the possible change in tax law. . . .

Press Conferences We're Sorry We Missed: At a press conference to announce a public hearing on his beleaguered plan to build a downtown arena for the New Jersey Nets, Newark Mayor Sharpe James "danced with a basketball as a make-believe broadcast of the 2002 NBA Finals between the Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers appeared on overhead projectors," according to the Newark Star-Ledger. "He popped the basketball from the inside of his elbows to his hands as he pranced, bouncing his shoulders up and down." Unfortunately, the Newark city council had canceled the hearing earlier in the day without notifying James -- oops. "The city's in total disarray over this," says Newark activist Hal Laessig, whose Sumei Arts Center is in the path of the proposed hoops palace. The city went back to the drawing board with its plans on February 2 to settle a lawsuit filed by Laessig and other local residents, which charged that the "blighted" neighborhood the council intended to seize by eminent domain was in fact a thriving community. --March 13, 2000

New Fenway Park To Cost 10,000% More Than Original: The price tag on the Boston Red Sox' dream ballpark was revealed January 12, and it's a doozy: $600 million, with as much as $300 million of that expected to come from the public treasury. (By contrast, the original Fenway cost about $6 million in year 2000 dollars.) At that price, it would be the second most expensive sports facility ever constructed (behind only Montreal's Olympic Stadium), and one of the largest public subsidies ever for a pro ballpark.

State House Speaker Thomas Finneran, who earlier in the week had been rumored to be considering setting up a stadium authority to seek a new ballpark for the Red Sox, remarked, "I saw the number and was somewhat staggered by the amount. I don't think it's a taxpayer responsibility or obligation to subsidize professional sports operations. Nor is it an obligation of taxpayers to chase down free agents and pay them extraordinary sums to pay them to come and play ball."

The Sox also announced ticket price hikes on December 29, with seats going up an average of 30%. Sox GM Dan Duquette defended the increase as "one way that we can generate more capital to put into our ball club" in the absence of a new stadium, arguing that "by the time we have it completed in our projected Year 2003, just about all the other teams in baseball will have put in another ballpark. So, it does point out the need for a new ballpark for the team." . . .

The Canadian government dropped its plan to provide federal tax subsidies to NHL teams on January 21, just three days after introducing it, in the face of vocal public opposition. Brenda Chamberlain, head of Ontario's Liberal Party caucus, reported receiving more than 200 letters and calls, all but one slamming the proposal; polls showed Canadians opposing the plan by a three-to-one ratio. Meanwhile, provincial elected officials were unanimously opposed to the deal: "This is about as low in the government's priorities as the Canucks currently are in the NHL standings," quipped British Columbia Finance Minister Paul Ramsey. Under the plan drawn up by Liberal Industry Minister John Manley, the six Canadian hockey teams would have been eligible for federal tax subsidies equal to one-quarter of total contributions from the NHL and the team's city and province. . . . In other north-of-the-border news, Missouri billionaires Bill and Nancy Laurie have withdrawn their $155 million bid to buy the Vancouver Grizzlies, in the face of NBA Commissioner David Stern's opposition to their planned relocation of the team to St. Louis. . . .

The San Diego Padres' planned ballpark may not be a done deal yet. Projected costs of the project continue to soar, to $1 billion overall, $299 million of which would be paid by the city. In November 1998, voters approved $225 million in bonding to help pay for the ballpark, meaning either the price has to come down, or more money must be raised. Meanwhile, the Padres have asked the city for broad new advertising rights in the ballpark district, including the right to erect signs, banners and kiosks with corporate advertising. Recent polls have shown eroding public support for the project, and opponents of the stadium are trying to introduce a new referendum on the plan for this fall's ballot. . . . San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts, who is running for mayor, says he expects the San Diego Chargers to exercise a loophole in their Qualcomm Stadium lease to either move the team or extract more financial concessions from the city. The current lease, which runs through 2020, was signed by the team in 1996 after a city-funded $76 million expansion of Qualcomm. . . . Scottsdale, Arizona's Los Arcos Mall arena project also faces an uncertain future: construction was set to begin this month, but has been delayed indefinitely while Phoenix Coyotes owner Richard Burke looks for a buyer for his team. . . .

The Green Bay Packers have proven that you don't need to be a for-profit corporation to grub for public money: the football team, owned by a publicly held non-profit corporation, is proposing a $295 million renovation of Lambeau Field, $160 million of which would be paid for by a 0.5% sales tax hike in Brown County. (The rest would largely be funded via an increased seat license fee for season ticket holders.) If approved by the state legislature and county supervisors, Brown County residents will get to vote on the tax plan in a referendum. . . . Charlotte Hornets co-owner Ray Wooldridge is reportedly looking into funding a new arena along the same lines as the Carolina Panthers' Ericsson Stadium: the team would pay to build the facility, while the public would be expected to pick up $60 million to $70 million in land and infrastructure costs. The team's current home, the Charlotte Coliseum, is only 12 years old, but the club is unhappy with its 12 luxury boxes. . . . The Los Angeles Dodgers are undertaking $50 million in renovations to Dodger Stadium, including the addition of 33 luxury suites, and 565 club seats in the first two rows that will be priced at between $195 and $295 a pop. . . .

Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, who brought his team back to Oakland from Los Angeles in return for $200 million in improvements to Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, is suing the coliseum board for $800 million in damages, claiming he was promised sold-out games that never materialized. Oakland City Council member Ignacio De La Fuente called the damage claim "a bunch of bull." . . . A New Jersey state assemblymember is balking at giving public money to an arena project after a report that the New Jersey Devils would be sold to the YankeeNets conglomerate for $175 million -- $40 million more than the team's estimated value. "It sure as heck seems to me if they paid the right price for the team, they wouldn't need a dollar from the state," state Assembly majority leader Paul DiGaetano told the Bergen Record. . . .

The sale of the New York Jets to Johnson & Johnson heir Robert Wood Johnson IV on January 11 for a whopping $635 million -- nearly double Forbes magazine's estimated worth for the franchise -- had many industry pundits wondering aloud if Johnson planned to earn back his purchase price by getting someone to build him a new stadium. Three days later, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani restated his desire for a Jets stadium on the West Side rail yards (previously targeted by the mayor for a new stadium for the Yankees), declaring in his State of the City speech that such a facility could also be used to host the 2012 Olympics. And the following week, Johnson declared, "We want to do everything in our power to provide them with their own stadium. Eight years from now [when the Jets' lease on Giants Stadium expires], they will be playing somewhere else." . . .

New York City Public Advocate Mark Green, who would inherit the mayoralty if current Giuliani wins his U.S. Senate race this fall, told reporters that he's against the city making more than a "modest" contribution toward a new stadium for the Yankees. "I think it's more important to spend scarce capital dollars on building and renovating our schools than [to give] huge subsidies to private companies which were bought with $10 million in 1973 and are now worth $600 million," Green said. "Studies have shown that money spent on sports franchises rarely earn back the investment." . . . The New York City Council passed a $71 million stadium for the minor-league Staten Island Yankees in December, but plans for a ballpark in Brooklyn's Parade Grounds for a Mets single-A club were blocked by a lawsuit; the team is expected to play at nearby St. John's University instead. . . .

Estimated cost of the Cincinnati Reds' new ballpark has risen from $235 million to $334 million over the past two years. The Reds, who were previously set to contribute $30 million, have agreed to pay for the additional costs above $280 million. A bigger problem: Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes has reportedly refused to certify a bond sale to fund the stadium construction, insisting that the county has already used up $52 million of its yearly $58 million bond limit, which wouldn't leave enough left over for stadium bonds. . . . The Reds have also announced that 14,000 outfield seats in Cinergy Field will be partially demolished after the 2000 season to make way for construction of the new ballpark, set to open in 2003. . . .

The stadium task force commissioned by Arizona Gov. Jane Hull is expected to return by Jan. 31 with a report recommending the state build a $329 million football stadium for the Arizona Cardinals, paid for by a combination of hotel and rental-car taxes ($159 million), stadium district sales and income taxes ($75 million), and contributions from the Cardinals ($50 million), the NFL ($25 million) and other private groups ($20 million). The proposal is expected to face rough sledding in the state legislature, which must approve any new taxes by a two-thirds majority of each house. . . . The new Gaylord Entertainment Center will cost Nashville taxpayers $3.5 million in revenue shortfall this year, according to the Tennessean. Total losses over its first four years of operation: $12.5 million. . . .

Forbes magazine reports that thanks to strike that wiped out first 32 games of last season, most NBA teams lost money last year. But thanks to new labor deal struck with the players' union, which includes a tightened salary cap, every team but one (the Vancouver Grizzlies) increased in value. Major League Baseball is no doubt watching closely, with its labor agreement set to expire after the 2001 season. . . .

Joe Falls of the Detroit News warns of the Tigers' new Comerica Park, "I'm afraid they're going to have a sun problem. By facing the ballpark south to take advantage of the skyline, they will have the sun coming in over the right-field roof and shining into the Detroit dugout, as well as all the seats down the third-base line and into the outfield. ... When I spoke to team president John McHale about it, he said, 'Give us credit for knowing what they're doing.' ... In any case, he said, 'We can always put up a sun screen.' but I'm not sure what a 'sun screen' is, and it sounds gimmicky." --January 23, 2000

This site written and maintained by Neil deMause. All rights reserved. Lovingly hosted by Drizzle Internet.

Fieldofschemes.com is the companion website to Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money Into Private Profit, by Joanna Cagan and Neil deMause. Since 1998, we have been casting a critical eye on the roughly $2 billion a year in public subsidies that go toward building new pro sports facilities.

For more on this topic, browse our news archives, see related links below, or order the book, join our discussion list, or contact Neil.

Recent Articles
by Neil deMause

Stadium and arena info

Stadium and arena deal summaries from League of Fans
Rod Fort's sports business pages
Judith Grant Long's data on full public cost of stadiums and arenas (all sports)
Congressional testimony on taxpayer-financed stadiums (March 29, 2007)
Latest estimates of public/private costs of Yankees and Mets stadium deals (exclusive to fieldofschemes.com)
Sports facility reports from the National Sports Law Institute
Ballparks.com (all sports)
SportsVenues.com (all sports)
Ballparks, Arenas and Stadiums (photos, all sports)
The Business of Baseball (baseball only)
Doug Pappas' business of baseball weblog (archive)

Stadium activist groups

Save Fenway Park! (Boston)
Develop Don't Destroy (Brooklyn)
No Jones Tax (Dallas)
No Stadium Tax Coalition (Minnesota)
Taxpayers for an Anoka County Stadium Referendum (Minnesota)
hellskitchen.net (New York)
Save Our Parks (New York)
MAPS for Millionaires (Oklahoma City)
Preserve Our Wallets and Waterfront (St. Petersburg)
Santa Clara Plays Fair (Santa Clara)
Citizens for More Important Things (Seattle)

Blogs 'n' things

Atlantic Yards Report (Brooklyn)
No Land Grab (Brooklyn)
Indy Tax Dollars (Indianapolis)
K.C. Hockey Buzz (Kansas City)
Stadium Facts (Santa Clara)
Clawback (national corporate subsidy blog)

Stadium economic studies

Sports, Jobs & Taxes, edited by Roger Noll and Andrew Zimbalist (entire text online as GIFs)

Stadiums, Professional Sports, and Economic Development, by Robert Baade (executive summary only)

The Effect of Professional Sports on the Earnings of Individuals, by Dennis Coates and Brad Humphreys (PDF file)

Double Play: The Economics and Financing of Stadiums for the Yankees and Mets, by the New York City Independent Budget Office

New York City Independent Budget Office analysis of proposed Yankees and Mets stadiums (PDFs)

Loot, Loot, Loot for the Home Team (PDF file), from "The Great American Jobs Scam" by Greg LeRoy

Loot, Loot, Loot for the Home Team: How the Proposal to Subsidize a New Yankee Stadium Would Leave Residents and Taxpayers Behind (PDF file), by Good Jobs New York

Olympics watch sites

GamesBids.com
NewYorkGames.org (New York)
Bread Not Circuses (Toronto)
Olympic Watch (British Columbia)

Related corporate subsidy sites

Good Jobs First

Old stuff

City-by-city listings (through 1999)
Top 10 dumbest reasons to build a stadium
Top 10 dumbest reasons of 2000