Will the Commanders deal pay off for taxpayers? A special TV investimagation

NBC Washington’s Ted Oberg has done an analysis of the proposed Commanders stadium deal and claims that it will repay its taxpayer cost, and I watched it so you don’t have to. A quick summary:

• “All sales taxes, food and beverage taxes, and ticket taxes generated at the stadium stay in a fund used solely for stadium expenses and upkeep.”
• The resulting tax fund initially was estimated at $4 billion, but consultants Convention, Sports & Leisure later increased that figure to $5 billion. “The I-Team was told the consultant behind the report you paid for didn’t want to do press or answer our questions.”
• D.C. administrator Kevin Donohue said the jump in projected revenue came from more aggressive assumptions about how fast restaurants and other businesses would open around the stadium.
• The TV station filed an open records request for the initial projections and discussions between city officials and CSL around them — but were turned down.
• D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute director of economic policy Shira Markoff says that district taxpayers deserve better answers about the full cost of the stadium deal.
• NBC Washington also asked for a copy of the city’s master plan for the project, including 6,500 units of housing, but were turned down.

And that, pretty much, is it: The D.C. mayor’s office says this will be a great deal for taxpayers, NBC Washington asked for details, and the mayor’s office wouldn’t provide them. I’ll give it maybe a C+ — it’s fine as far as it goes, but when you have experienced sports economists willing to make estimates about the actual cost, not to mention plenty of damning history for those consultants, including screwing up a previous economic impact report in D.C. itself, there’s so much more you could have done with this than “we asked questions, we didn’t get answers.” As someone who has edited investigative journalists, I’ve got to say that this is the kind of work I would send back for more fleshing out — “you’ve got an idea for a story, but you don’t really have a story yet.”

Here are some questions that are worth asking, if either NBC Washington or any other D.C. journalists feel like going for a better grade:

• Why was Convention, Sports & Leisure chosen to do the city’s economic projections, despite their terrible track record and close ties to the sports industry? Was there any kind of search conducted, or did D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser just pick someone who could be relied on to provide a professional-looking clear plastic binder?
• How was it decided that Commanders owner Josh Harris would not only get full development rights to the RFK Stadium parcel, he would get 30 years of free rent and 90 years of total exemption from property taxes, with no commitment even to make payments in lieu of taxes, as other developers have done?
• How much of the tax spending “related” to the stadium would actually be new to D.C., and how much would be cannibalized from other spending in the city?
• What new city service costs would be incurred to support 6,500 units of new housing plus new businesses, and how would those be paid for if the development wouldn’t pay property taxes and sales taxes would be kicked back to the team?

Those are just a few off the top of my head, but it’s a start. Maybe I should come up with 20 more and we could make a bingo card? I’ll get to work on that.