Announcing the Carson Chargers - Raiders

Raiders, Chargers Propose Shared Football Stadium Near L.A.
Excerpt:

For two decades, this football-deprived city has been trying to win back the love of the National Football League. Now, L.A. has an abundance of suitors—though how serious they are is unclear. The San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders Friday announced a proposal to build a shared football stadium near Los Angeles, making it the fourth plan to bring the NFL back to the area. The $1.7 billion stadium would be privately funded, according to its backers. The latest proposal, first reported in the Los Angeles Times, calls for a stadium in Carson, a small city less than 20 miles south of L.A.

Comment: Got to like the ring of "privately funded,"

Gov Dayton: Pull tabs in grocery stores

E-Pulltabs Coming Up Short In Funding Vikings Stadium
Excerpt:

The revenue coming in from the electronic pulltab games are not enough to fund the new Vikings stadium.

But state leaders say pulltab revenues will get better, even as the budget report issued on Wednesday said the money isn’t coming in anywhere near as rapidly as predicted.

Gov. Mark Dayton says he’s not overly concerned, but that the state might need to start marketing electronic pulltab gambling — not just at bars, but even grocery stores.

“There are enterprises like Cub Foods that are qualified and eligible to allow these games,” Dayton said. “And we are going to need somebody to go out and market these opportunities. So I think we will catch up. We are slightly behind now, but we’ll get there.”

Comment: Folly! See earlier posts: Electronic pull-tabs: Revenue Reality Check and Flaws in the Stadium plan

On the hook

Public on hook for Vikings stadium overruns

Excerpt:

The agreement to build a new Minnesota Vikings football stadium in Minneapolis features a key difference from the plan to build the project in Ramsey County and even from the Minnesota Twins' new Target Field. Once it is built, any Vikings stadium operating cost overruns ultimately will be the public's responsibility. And not just overruns. The public will be legally obligated to maintain the stadium "in a manner that is first-class and consistent with comparable" National Football League stadiums -- a clause that could translate into substantial future costs

Comment: Once again demonstrates that MN legislators are not really representing the people. Agents of the NFL and the Vikings!

Flaws in the Stadium Plan - II

Vikings stadium bill trips over projections of gaming revenue

 Excerpt:

Gov. Mark Dayton and supporters of a new Minnesota Vikings stadium scrambled on Monday to blunt doubts that electronic bingo and pulltabs could raise enough money to pay the state's share of the $975 million project without putting taxpayers at risk if gaming revenue falls short.

Over the weekend, Dayton and Revenue Commissioner Myron Frans reached out to charitable gambling officials to dull growing criticism of the state's $398 million financing proposal. Charities had fought for years to increase their take from pulltabs and bingo, only to see stadium supporters take much of the new revenue to pay for a Vikings stadium.

With a crucial legislative deadline fast approaching, King Wilson, the executive director of Allied Charities of Minnesota, said a "large gap" remained between the charities and the governor on the issue.

The impasse left key legislators unsure about pressing forward, particularly those on House and Senate panels where the stadium legislation would get its first votes. One DFL legislator said on Monday -- two days before the bill's first Senate hearing -- that the proposal was being held together with "duct tape."

"I do have some concerns ... about the funding -- absolutely -- whether or not it truly is a stable source of revenue," said Sen. Claire Robling, R-Jordan, a member of the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee.

Comment: And of course if the funding comes up short ... raise general revenue to pay for it!

Flaws in the Stadium plan

Stadium deal may test Minneapolis charter

 Excerpt:

[Bob Greenberg] wrote the city charter amendment that now poses the greatest hurdle to supporters of a Vikings stadium in Minneapolis -- mandating a citywide vote on stadium subsidies of $10 million or more. Seventy percent of city voters approved that language in 1997 during talks of a new Twins ballpark, but it now faces its first real test as the Legislature considers a bill to ignore it altogether.

"I did not write this charter amendment to prevent the building of a stadium," said Greenberg, a former Twin Cities activist who moved into a woodland tent two years ago and lives off the land, including roadkill. "But only to force the city to put it before the voters."

The activists who fought for the referendum requirement have long parted ways, but now find themselves revisiting the passionate case they made for a public say in sports subsidies. Some are offended at what's going on. Others have changed their minds.

The three sentences in the Minneapolis charter have prompted a majority of the City Council to speak out against the latest stadium plan, which would bypass the referendum. When the referendum idea was born around a table in St. Paul 15 years ago, then-Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton wanted to dedicate $50 million to a new home for the Twins.

"I knew, as I said at those meetings, that they were going to get around it," said then-mayoral candidate and City Council Member Barbara Carlson, who supported the referendum requirement. But times change. Carlson now believes it was "a bad decision" and "referendums are insanity."

Mayor R.T. Rybak's latest proposal to fund a Vikings stadium in downtown Minneapolis would pay for the city's share of the facility by redirecting a group of sales taxes that currently pay for the convention center. That money becomes available when the convention center debt is paid in 2020. Stadium backers argue the sales taxes are state-authorized and therefore not city resources, an argument reflected in the stadium bill introduced Friday.

Greenberg knew any loopholes would be exploited, which was why he included a laundry list of funding options to spur a vote, including "sales tax or other taxes."

"I pulled my brains out [imagining] what is every single way that they could finance this? How could they find a way around this?"

Rybak has argued that his deal, which he says will lower property taxes by paying debt on Target Center, is a much more complicated package than what the referendum is meant to address. But Council Member Gary Schiff, who developed the idea with Greenberg, says voters still want a voice in this deal.

Comment: The two flaws ... and they are major:

1. Bypassing the City charter and bypassing the declared will of the people.
2. Guessing at the amount of the funding source (the electronic pull tabs)

I could almost say I don't care because I don't live in Minneapolis. But the 2nd flaw will cost all Minnesotans when the revenue stream is inadequate.

Electronic pull-tabs: Revenue Reality Check

Can electronic pull-tabs pull in enough stadium revenue?

Excerpt:

A major pillar of the Vikings stadium proposal unveiled last week is tax revenue from an expansion in charitable gambling. But such a financing plan has lots of unknowns — and one key question: Will the introduction of electronic gambling gizmos generate enough income to repay the bonds?

The financing proposal depends on electronic pull-tabs supplying funds to repay $398 million in bonds the state plans to float to build the facility. (Minneapolis will back another $150 million in bonds with sales taxes, pending City Council endorsement to the financial arrangement.

The entire public financing plan, Gov. Mark Dayton said last week, wouldn't use "a single dollar of general fund tax revenues.")

Minnesota already allows paper pull-tabs. To win cash prizes, players match pictures on the front of the cards they purchase, usually for $2 each, under tabs that they tear off. Bars and restaurants sell them on behalf of nonprofits, and the proceeds -- minus the prize money, expenses and taxes -- go to charity. Among those who benefit in Minnesota: American Legion posts, VFW groups and others who use the money to support local sports leagues, scholarships and the like.

Comment: I'm not particularly naive but until pull tabs were recently explained to me, I didn't even know what they were. Sounds like a giant waste of time and money! The linked article examines the dubious propects of the electronic pull tab revenue source. A must read because if this stream fails, all Minnesotans will be holdlng the bag for the Vikings stadium

Vikings Stadium: Make Wimpy Pay!

Republicans: Vikings should only get loan for new stadium

Republicans: Vikings should only get loan for new stadium

Excerpt:

Saying that they had the only Minnesota Vikings stadium plan that could pass the Legislature, three Republican senators offered a plan Thursday that would limit any direct public subsidy to the team to a $300 million loan.

The proposal -- which the Vikings and Gov. Mark Dayton quickly dismissed -- took the stadium debate at the state Capitol in an entirely different direction: Arguing that the team should only be offered minimal assistance and nothing beyond what other businesses could expect.

The three senators, led by Sen. Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, said that the state should not be involved in whether the stadium had “gold-plated tile” and needed to cost $1 billion.

The Legislature “shouldn’t have an interest in whether they build a stadium with a roof or astro-turf, or how many suites they have, or whether it’s in Ramsey County,” said Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, a co-author of the proposal. “Those are things that the business itself ought to work out with local communities who have interest in hosting that site.”

Comments: My view. Make Zygi Wilf (Wimpy!) pay for it! Color image from No More Wimpy Government. Info on the sponger Wimpy here!

The Myth of Jobs and Stadiums

As Super Bowl Shows, Build Stadiums for Love and Not Money Excerpt:

Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Colts play eight regular season games per year, has every amenity: a retractable roof, state-of-the-art turf, seven locker rooms, 137 luxury suites, 1,000 flat-screen televisions.

And well it should: It cost $720 million to build. Of this, the Colts paid only $100 million. To cover the rest, local officials raised taxes on hotels, restaurants and rental cars, and issued bonds that soon led to ballooning financing costs.

As Bloomberg News reported Feb. 2, the cost overruns resulted partly from the city’s reliance on auction-rate securities, which became extremely expensive as the market for such bonds collapsed in 2008. Interest rates on some of the stadium bonds reached 15 percent at one point, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

All told, this led to about $43 million in unexpected financing costs. As projected deficits grew larger, the county board that operates the stadium had to reduce arts and cultural grants, and the city increased taxes on hotels even further.

... And the debts linger: From the Kingdome in Seattle to the Astrodome in Houston to the old Giants Stadium in New Jersey, today’s taxpayers are on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in debt for stadiums that are no longer in use or no longer even exist. The RCA Dome -- which Lucas Oil Stadium replaced, and which was imploded in 2008 -- won’t be paid off until 2021.

Comment: Read the full article. I oppose public financing of stadiums. If a team threatens to walk ... let 'em!

What do the Vikings referendum and the Greek referendum have in common?

Dayton: No referendum exemption support for Vikings stadium

Excerpt:

In a troubling move for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium, Gov. Mark Dayton announced Tuesday that there was not enough legislative support to exempt either Ramsey County or Minneapolis from having a referendum to increase local sales taxes for the project.

Dayton said he and Republican legislative leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and House Speaker Kurt Zellers, came to the conclusion following a meeting last Friday. Without a legislative exemption, the governor said in a statement, the earliest a referendum could be held in either Ramsey County or Minneapolis would be November 2012.

The announcement could effectively derail a plan to have Ramsey County contribute $350 million to a new $1.1 billion stadium in Arden Hills through a countywide sales tax increase. Stadium proponents have argued that without a legislative exemption – like the Minnesota Twins had in Hennepin County in building Target Field in downtown Minneapolis – the Vikings stadium project would likely be scuttled by voters.

Comment: Answer: Both will fail!

Give Zygi Wilf the Metrodome .... take it or leave it!

Vikings stadium: Let's inject fiscal sanity into the debate

Excerpt:

Zygi Wilf and the Vikings are attempting to make their Ramsey County stadium deal sound like a run-of-the-mill, routine proposal. It is not. The Vikings are asking for the No. 1, all-time, biggest taxpayer subsidy of any sports franchise anywhere in American history!

At a time when many families are struggling to pay their bills, the Vikings and their political allies want Minnesotans to put up more taxpayer money than any other community ever — think about that — to subsidize a team owner.

...

Giving the Metrodome to the Vikings is not a perfect solution, but one that reflects fiscal responsibility and fairness for both the Vikings and the taxpayers of Minnesota. We are by no means alone in wanting a fair resolution. Minnesota voters oppose the use of public money for a new Vikings' stadium by more than 3 to 1 (22 percent favor using public funds, 74 percent oppose). Yet the Ramsey County Board and some state officials are talking seriously of a taxpayer subsidy of over $650 million.

...

... let's compare this Metrodome transfer proposal to the Los Angeles options. The best of the Los Angeles stadium proposals is to give Zygi Wilf the land on which to build his own stadium, at his expense. We would give him the land with a stadium already on it, and he could improve, enhance, or rebuild it as he desires.

Los Angeles offers no public subsidy. We offer no public subsidy.

...

This Minnesota option is a reasonable, competitive alternative. And, under our proposal Wilf avoids a $250+ million NFL "relocation fee," and he gets to keep his integrity and a truly loyal fan base.

At a time when most Americans, including people from Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party, are angry at outrageous corporate bailouts, some politicians want to force Minnesotans to pay for the biggest corporate subsidy in sports history. That's incredible.

Comment: Seems like a reasonsable approach.

Vikings Stadium: Let the people vote!

Referendum could be deal-breaker - Politicians are messing up the Vikings' stadium proposal, and the team would move if it falls through.

Excerpt:

The Vikings have done a lot of work to convince politicians in the Legislature of the benefits of the stadium and to vote in favor of it. The Wilf family is putting in more money to build the stadium than most other franchises have contributed that have recently built new facilities. But we still have Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and House Speaker Kurt Zellers calling for a referendum in Ramsey County on the proposed half-percent sales tax needed to fund the stadium.

I suggest Koch check with her Buffalo constituents on how she would fare in a future election if the Vikings, who are in the last year of their Metrodome lease, decide to move to Los Angeles or some other place if they can't finalize this deal.

I agree with Ramsey County Commissioner Tony Bennett, who has been pushing hard for the Arden Hills site, that a referendum would kill the stadium proposal. And if there wasn't a referendum for the Twins' Target Field, which has been such a major success, why have one for the Vikings stadium?

If a referendum took place and voters defeated the tax-increase proposal, believe me, it's a cinch the Vikings would move. The team would be stuck in the Metrodome with no chance to take in the necessary revenue to compete with other teams.

All signs point to two teams moving to Los Angeles to play in their proposed new downtown stadium. The Vikings could be one of them.

Comment: Sid Hartman at it again.

Stadiums: Not trusting the voters

Dayton: Get stadium done

Excerpt:

Gov. Mark Dayton said Tuesday that he doesn't care whether Ramsey County voters get to decide on a sales-tax increase for the proposed $1.1 billion Minnesota Vikings stadium in Arden Hills, he just wants to make progress on building the team a new stadium.

And he dangled the possibility of calling a special legislative session to address the stadium issue in November.

"I don't have a problem with [a referendum], but I'm not advocating it," Dayton said. "I want to get this stadium project done."

The governor's comments clarified remarks from Monday at the State Fair where he said he would support a referendum. Dayton said those comments were twisted.

"I'm not supporting it, per se. I'm not opposed to it. If they pass legislation and the Legislature goes along with it, I'll support it," he said of the referendum.

The Ramsey County Charter Commission is meeting Wednesday night to discuss a possible ballot question on the sales tax. The deadline for 2011 has passed so the question, if approved, wouldn't be on the ballot until November 2012.

The Vikings want the issues resolved sooner. They say they have waited in line while others got new stadiums and now it's their turn.

The referendum question is critical because Ramsey County voters likely would reject a sales-tax increase. St. Paul voters, who make up more than half the county, soundly rejected a sales tax proposal to build a Twins stadium in 1999.

Comment: Let the people vote on this! (I live in Hennepin Co so this does not directly impact me)

How Cincinnati got suckered into two stadium deals

A Stadium's Costly Legacy Throws Taxpayers for a Loss

Excerpts:

Here in Hamilton County, where one in seven people lives beneath the poverty line and budget cuts have left gaps in the schools and sheriffs department, residents are bracing for more belt-tightening: rollback of a property-tax break promised as part of a 1996 plan to entice voters to pay for two new stadiums.

The tax hit is just the latest in a string of unforeseen consequences from what has turned into one of the worst professional sports deals ever struck by a local government—soaking up unprecedented tax dollars and county resources while returning little economic benefit.

With a combined estimated cost of $540 million, the stadiums—one for football's Bengals, the other for baseball's Reds—were touted by the teams and county officials as a way to generate cash and jobs. The Bengals, who had threatened to relocate if they didn't secure a new home, drove negotiations. And it is that deal—the more lucrative arrangement struck with the teams—that has fanned the county's current struggles.

...

At its completion in 2000, Paul Brown Stadium had soared over its $280 million budget—and the fiscal finger-pointing had already begun.

The county says the final cost was $454 million. The team's estimate, which doesn't include infrastructure work around the stadium, puts the tab at $350 million.

But according to research by Judith Grant Long, a Harvard University professor who studies stadium finance, the cost to the public was closer to $555 million once other expenditures, such as special elevated parking structures, are factored in. No other NFL stadium had ever received that much public financing.

...

On top of paying for the stadium, Hamilton County granted the Bengals generous lease terms. It agreed to pick up nearly all operating and capital improvement costs—and to foot the bill for high-tech bells and whistles that have yet to be invented, like a "holographic replay machine." No team had snared such concessions in addition to huge sums of public money, Journal research shows.

To help finance its stadiums, Hamilton County assumed more than $1 billion in debt by issuing its own bonds without any help from the surrounding counties or the state. As debt service ratchets up, officials expect debt payments to create a $30 million budget deficit by 2012.

"The Cincinnati deal combined taking on a gargantuan responsibility with setting new records for optimistic forecasting," says Roger Noll, a professor of economics at Stanford University who has written about the deal. "It takes both to put you in a deep hole, and that's a pretty deep hole."

The stadium's annual tab continues to escalate, according to the county's website. In 2008, the Bengals' stadium cost to taxpayers was $29.9 million, an amount equivalent to 11% of the county's general fund.

Last year, it rose to $34.6 million—a sum equal to 16.4% of the county budget.

Comment: A cautionary tale! And the teams suck too!

9th things 1st: Stadium bill higher priority than the budget!

Dayton: Vikings stadium bill could come before budget-balancing deal

Excerpt:

Gov. Mark Dayton said Wednesday he would be open to signing a Minnesota Vikings stadium bill before the budget is done.

Lawmakers have introduced bills to get the Vikings a new stadium, but there haven’t been any hearings on the issue yet.

Dayton said he has been in constant contact with Chairman of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission Ted Mondale about a new stadium. He said, as he has before, that a new stadium would be “very worthwhile project" and could create jobs.

Dayton said lawmakers shouldn't expect a possible new stadium to be a “bargaining chip” that Republicans could use against him as budget negotiations loom. Finding a workable solution for team, he said, rest squarely with with the Legislature.

“If we don’t have a stadium and the Vikings leave, that’s their responsibility not mine,” Dayton said.

Comment: The Vikes could play in Iowa for all I care! Balance the budget first!

Phantom Stadiums

As Stadiums Vanish, Their Debt Lives On

Excerpts:

The old Giants Stadium, demolished to make way for New Meadowlands Stadium, still carries about $110 million in debt, or nearly $13 for every New Jersey resident, even though it is now a parking lot.

...

New Jerseyans are hardly alone in paying for stadiums that no longer exist. Residents of Seattle’s King County owe more than $80 million for the Kingdome, which was razed in 2000. The story has been similar in Indianapolis and Philadelphia. In Houston, Kansas City, Mo., Memphis and Pittsburgh, residents are paying for stadiums and arenas that were abandoned by the teams they were built for.

But befitting its name, Giants Stadium is the granddaddy of phantom facilities. Taxpayers in New Jersey, already under pressure from declining local government revenues, this year will pay $35.8 million in principal and interest on the $266 million in remaining bonds for the Meadowlands Sports Complex, which opened in 1976 and includes the Izod Center and a horse racing track. Those bonds will not be paid until 2025.

Comment: Not the case with the Metrodome.