Let the people enjoy it, by gimleteye

George Burgess, Miami-Dade County Manager, spoke from the witness stand yesterday in the lawsuit brought by Norman Braman against the $3 Billion Megaplan about the logic behind public subsidies for the stadium sought by the Florida Marlins. As reported by The Miami Herald, his choice of words echo back to the Roman Empire.

''The mayor's objective -- and the mayor couldn't have been more clear -- was to be able to build a stadium and keep the Florida Marlins in South Florida and let the people enjoy it,'' Burgess testified, referring to county Mayor Carlos Alvarez. "That's what drove our thinking. Not whether the team netted X amount or Y amount of dollars.''

In a more benign configuration, it means civic pride. But the exact order of the words, "Let the people enjoy it", speaks of the same arrogance of power that goes along with a permanent incumbency, believing that people do not know what is best for them.

"Let the people enjoy it," you can hear in those words the functionaries and the emperors, who kept crowds at the colosseum sated while the empire crumbled around them.

To me, the spectacle of half-grown men paid tens of millions of dollars to chase balls while teachers, nurses, and workers struggle to pay the electricity bill or mortgage or simply keep up with inflation: these are reason enough to condemn the public subsidies of the Megaplan.

If the Marlins want a new colosseum, let them pay for it. Don't put my money or the public money anywhere near it. And for God's sakes, don't start crying about the need for jobs. Click on read more, for the Wall Street Journal's take on the false promise of jobs and sports stadiums, just yesterday.


July 17, 2008

If You Build It, the Jobs Won't Come
By MARK YOST
July 17, 2008; Page D9
Washington

Just a few years ago, the corner of M Street and New Jersey Avenue was not somewhere you wanted to be after dark. It was part of Washington's notorious Southeast neighborhood, rife with drugs, crime and poverty. But today, about 30,000 baseball fans flock here 80 nights a year to watch the Washington Nationals play in their new $611 million stadium.

While the neighborhood is certainly undergoing a renaissance, what's uncertain is how much credit should go to the ballpark. It's a question that has been debated countless times before, over other stadiums, but the historical evidence is pretty clear.

Sports economists have long argued that publicly financed stadiums are a waste of taxpayer money. And they have the data to prove it.

Yes, stadiums do create high-paying construction jobs for a year or two. But the vast majority of long-term employment is low-wage concession jobs. A Congressional Research Service study of the Baltimore Ravens stadium found that each job created cost the state $127,000. By comparison, Maryland's Sunny Day Fund created jobs for about $6,000 each.

"Walk a few blocks away from the stadiums and you'll see the net economic impact of both the Ravens' stadium and Camden Yards," said Neil deMause, author of "Field of Schemes," a book and Web site devoted to the false promises of publicly financed sports stadiums. "Both have produced a plethora of pawn shops and dollar stores." A 1998 report by the New York City Independent Budget Office found no "economic rationale for assuming that building any new stadium would itself spur construction of office towers and hotels. Total output resulting from the presence of the teams in the city amounts to less than one tenth of one percent of the economic activity in New York City."

Even the economic impact of the team's highest-paid employees, the ballplayers, is sometimes muted. Many have off-season homes in another city, where they pay taxes on their millions. And cities like Cleveland have sued to force visiting athletes pay local income taxes.

Then there's the fact that only a sliver of the tax base really benefits from a sports stadium. And with ticket prices rising rapidly, that group is getting much smaller.

Consider the New York Yankees, who have the highest payroll in baseball and take in more than $300 million a year just from their television network. They'll move into a new $1 billion stadium next year, about half of which was covered by the taxpayers. Seats behind home plate that cost $250 this year will be ten times that next year. The net result is that very few of the people who paid for the stadium will be able to afford a seat there.

But perhaps the best argument against publicly financed stadiums is straight out of Econ 101: Opportunity cost.

"What else could the city have invested its money in and what kind of a return would it have produced?" said King Banaian, chairman of the St. Cloud State (Minn.) Economics Dept. Despite reams of evidence to the contrary, the District proceeded with what Councilman Kwame Brown calls "the most controversial project in the history of the city."

It was controversial, he said, because the city had more pressing needs. The city's schools are in shambles; crime is out of control; and unemployment in distressed neighborhoods, like Southeast, is double the national average, if not higher.

The city did put strict conditions on building the stadium. For instance, as much work as possible had to go to local laborers and businesses. For the most part, that happened, but contractors were hampered by a lack of skilled laborers in the District. Today, about 68% of the stadium workers are D.C. residents, and local companies operate about 25% of the concessions.

During a walk through the neighborhood on Saturday, Councilman Brown, who was originally against the stadium, proudly pointed to the development that has started to transform the once-blighted neighborhood. The centerpiece is the new Department of Transportation headquarters, which brings 7,000 people into the neighborhood every workday. And there are $600,000 condos going up, but some of those projects have been stopped by the nationwide downturn in real estate.

Councilman Brown admits that the stadium doesn't deserve all the credit for the turnaround, but echoing many of his colleagues says, "Without it we wouldn't be anywhere near where we are today."

Walking a few blocks to the leafy green Capitol Hill neighborhood, where townhouses sell for $1 million or more, Mr. Brown says he hopes that one day Southeast will command such hefty prices. He also points to the once-notorious neighborhood around 8th and I streets, where even the Marine barracks used to get robbed. Today, the gentrified neighborhood is known as Barracks Row, abuzz with hip young urbanites strolling between local bars, restaurants and small businesses.

In defending the city's decision, Councilman Brown points out that on the same day the City Council approved funding for the stadium, it also earmarked $1 billion to upgrade D.C. schools, including $58 million for a new high school for construction trades and architectural design. And under terms of the deal, the city expects to see about $40 million a year in revenue. The smallest portion will come from the team, which is supposed to pay $5.5 million a year in rent. But just this week the Nationals began withholding payments, saying the city had failed to "complete" the stadium.

The vast majority of income is expected to come from the same people who financed the stadium: the taxpayers. An estimated $14 million a year is projected from taxes on tickets, concessions and merchandise. Another $24 million will come from a new stadium tax on D.C. businesses with gross revenues of $3 million or more. Indeed, with the exception of some housing and small businesses that have moved into the neighborhood, the vast majority of the "development" in Southeast is nothing more than taxpayer-funded public works projects.

So in the end, what did the taxpayers get other than a bill for $611 million? The Washington National's Web site advertises jobs for elevator operators, fan ambassadors and security guards. The pay is $7.50-$8.50 an hour.

Mr. Yost is a writer in Chicago.

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