Category: Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks owners want to build a big L.A. Live-style entertainment district around their soon-to-be-renovated arena, because of course they do. And along with the maybe $150 million they’re looking for in arena renovation subsidies, they want the entertainment district to get tax breaks, too, because duh.

The sales tax break was amended onto House Bill 937, which extends a tax break for major business expansion projects – such as the Falcons stadium and Baxter International’s plant near Covington – in the Senate Finance Committee…

State legislation to extend a rental car tax could also be required to help clear the way for the project.

If I’m reading the legislation right, the sales tax break would be on construction materials, which is a common enough giveaway to big development projects that’s not worth a ton — the sales tax rate in Atlanta is 8%, so even if half the project cost is for materials, that’s still only a kickback of 4% off the total cost — but does raise the question of why legislators are convinced that nobody will build anything ever without getting sales tax knocked off their bill. The rental car tax, which was originally passed to fund infrastructure around the arena, is likely worth more to the Hawks owners, but it’s targeted for “infrastructure” again, though we don’t know what that means yet, or it could go to pay for arena improvements, too.

So basically we have no idea what any of this will look like or who will pay how much for what, but the state legislature is voting on tax breaks for it regardless. Good ol’ Georgia.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed still really wants to throw money at the Hawks for an upgrade to their 17-year-old arena:

“We have not settled on the number, but what we have looked at is our own capacity of what we can comfortably finance,” he said in an hour-long meeting with AJC reporters and the newspaper’s editorial board. “We think that number is between 100 million and 150 million (dollars).

“The total project would be anywhere from 200 million to 300 million (dollars),” he said.

Reed said the sources of funding haven’t been determined, but rental car taxes are likely to be part and he did not rule out funding from the Westside Tax Allocation District.

So… wait, what? The city can comfortably finance $100-150 million, but doesn’t know where the money would come from? I thought that $150 million figure was supposed to be from money available after the city sells Turner Field? Now it’s just a big ol’ number that Reed is offering Hawks owner Tony Ressler because that’s just what Atlanta does, even though the team can’t move anywhere without paying massive penalties? Come on, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I’m counting on you to raise your eyebrows at least a little more at this.

Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin dropped a few hints last week about what he and his fellow team execs are seeking in a renovated arena and new practice facility, though most of it comes down to “we’re working on it”:

• Arena renovations would take place in phases so that the Hawks could keep playing there throughout the process. No word on how much it would cost, but Koonin made clear he’s expecting public money, saying, “We want the city to do its fair share, and we plan to do ours.” (Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed previously floated $150 million as the city’s share, but that was a while ago now, before the new owners even bought the team.)
• There’s no one site being targeted for the practice facility, but it’s planned to open for the 2017-18 season, which is soon. And Koonin said team execs are “talking to public officials about collaboration,” so expect more taxpayer cash there as well.

It’s all pretty nebulous for now, but will likely get more concrete in the coming weeks and months. And it makes even clearer that asking for separate practice facilities is becoming a thing for team owners seeking new ways to ask cities to buy them crap: We just saw this with the Washington Wizards, and Koonin said not having a separate practice space puts teams at “a competitive disadvantage” — which on the face of it sounds pretty silly (really, free agents won’t sign with your team if they have to practice where they play games?), but certainly sounds better as a reason to ask for public cash than “all the other kids are getting them this Christmas.” Though why being at a competitive disadvantage should be Atlanta taxpayers’ problem and not the Hawks’ owners is another question that isn’t asked often enough.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says he’s met with the new owners of the Hawks about their stated desire for a new or renovated arena, and any hopes you may have had that he was going to tell them, “Fine, you want to replace your 16-year-old arena, do it on your own dime,” you can forget about that:

Reed said he’s met once with the team’s new owners and repeated his willingness to consider a deal involving the use public funds. The mayor first indicated that option last year in the wake of controversy involving the team’s previous leadership.

“What I’m willing to do is come to the table with a plan that makes sense and is fair to the people of Atlanta,” Reed said. “I’m not closed to participating in a reasonable plan to make sure that the Hawks remain in the city and that’s what I expressed in our meeting.”

Mayor Reed has a bit of a weird history with sports subsidies, being a prime mover behind giving hundreds of millions of public dollars to the Falcons for their new stadium, then declaring offering the Braves money to keep their from moving to Cobb County to be too rich for his blood, then offering $150 million for the Hawks to extend their lease when they weren’t even threatening to break it. There’s also the little matter that the Hawks couldn’t leave without paying off about $100 million in remaining bonds on the Philips Arena (and couldn’t leave before 2018 without paying an additional $75 million in penalties), but that’s apparently not going to stop Reed from leading with his wallet.

Possible sites for a new arena would be the Atlanta Civic Center (the current filming site for Family Feud, according to Wikipedia), a rehab of the existing Philips Arena (which the Hawks own), or a third, undisclosed site. Total cost: Who knows?

Prediction: This is not going to end well.

The Atlanta Hawks have a new owner, because the old one got caught complaining too many black fans were going to games and had to go. What do you have to say to your new team’s fans, leveraged buyout king Tony Ressler?

Ressler allowed that there were three things the new owners could do about Philips Arena, which opened in 1999: Nothing, remodel or rebuild. And the first, Ressler said, “isn’t an option.”

(Ressler also described Philips as being “not in the upper quartile of arenas.”)

Now, I know we’re in an age where sports venues are declared defunct after only a couple of decades — especially in Atlanta, for some reason — but declaring that your arena is obsolete because it’s 16 years old and there are seven nicer ones elsewhere is pretty ballsy.

And upping the ballsy quotient: For his reported $850 million purchase price, Ressler (and his co-owner, former NBA star Grant Hill) go not just the Hawks, but Philips Arena itself. So he’s not actually in a position to threaten anything if he doesn’t get a new arena, unless he’s prepared to attach his old one to balloons and fly it to Seattle. (Which, come to think of it, would defeat the point.) [CORRECTION: Ressler only bought operating rights to the arena, which is owned by the state stadium authority. So, sadly, no balloons.]

The hope is that Ressler won’t be looking for any public subsidies (ha ha ha!), and if he decides a new arena really is needed, will just spend his own money on building a new one. This time one that won’t start to look obsolete to its owner as soon as the shrink wrap is off, okay?