'SILVERDOME 'FIRE SALE'
11/25/09 - AP WIRE STORY MAKES THE ROUNDS- IT'S IN ALL THE PAPERS - TAKE YOUR PICK:
The Portland Press Herald, NY Times, Detroit News, Denver Post... Minneapolis, Dayton, you-name-it or, read it in our beloved,
Then Connect the dots....
Doesn't matter, it's the same story - the Detroit Silverdome has got itself
dead of unnatural causes, a $56 million dollar wunderkin
of a sports arena being sold off, 30 years later,
for chump change ($480k or so). Could it happen here? Could Cal Expo's
'one-egg-in-one-basket' NBA scheme wind up on the Goodwill Thriftshop
showroom floor? You bet it could.
Even if it were a good idea (which it isn't, not at Cal Expo),
teams move (or have losing streaks that go on and on and on...), fans
get tired, economies slump and bills come due - voila! You've got
a giant white elephant, a $1.5 million/yr cleanup and maintenance
bill (that's what Detroit's been paying just to keep theirs empty);
&, trust us, that's one huge pile of elephant poop!.
Bad enough if that was it, a few rich kids with idle money
on their hands to fool around with dreams of giant cement-pours in our fair
cities, on our dimes. Hey, a good basketball court can be a good thing under
the right circumstances (what part of 'PRIVATE funds' don't these guys seem to
understand?). But if you've got a family to feed or an Exposition & State
Fair that depends on you to bring home the bacon, then it's quite another story;
and guess whose going to be the next '50% Off On All Yellow Tags On Wednesdays' deal
in the bargain bins?
Sports arenas are mostly good deals for the short-term, fast shuffle
of a few hundred million dollars and those 'creative-money' folks who can
make it seem as if the money they'll be taking out of your pockets
came from somewhere else - is being used to buy Santa a new sleigh
so he/she can come down your chimney and shower you with gifts next XMAS,
or the next, or the next. Ain't so, Virginia. Or Arnold, or Kevin, or Steve,
or Gilbert, or Norbert.... If you think it is so, go read David Cay Johnston's,
"Free Lunch" and see how the 'not-brightest-bulb-in-the-package',
G.W., got his start playing the now-you-see-it/now-you-don't sports stadium
game with the taxpayers of Arlington, Texas; or, read Judith Grant Long's
report to the U.S. Senate
,
in our own CEAV proposal documents, on how municipalities and
taxpayers wind up on the losing end of sports build-outs and empty promises.
Not that we wish Detroit any ill will. They've suffered enough at the hands
of others whom they trusted with their money and their future. But, we're
pretty certain that there aren't many Detroiters looking to give a big
tax-break and beaucoup services to the next flim-flam salesman who blows
through town with grand schemes that only money can buy. No sir, at least
we hope not. It's gonna take a whole lot more imagination and
roll-up-your-sleeves-and-pitch-in attitude for that town to climb out of the
hole they're in. Detroit is one town that's already been 'fooled twice'.
So, we best take our lessons as they come to us. First lesson, you don't give your
water away to some plastic-generating, energy-guzzling bottling plant, just because you
want to "attract" business; and, you don't take one of the best pieces of
public commons, urban real estate in California and turn it over to private
developers who can sniff out 'tax-increments' and public benefits (can you spell
corporate W-E-L-F-A-R-E?) faster than Berne Madoff can put a new rung on a
ponzi scheme or the Maloof Bros. can flush the Sacramento Monarchs (a real source of civic
sports-pride) down the toilet, just because the dividends aren't big enough.
So, even if a Kings arena at Cal Expo was some kind of 'good deal' (which it ain't)
better if we learn a few lessons from Detroit, or the
Yankee Stadium swindle
, or
the questionable impact studies on the
Louisville arena
; or,
Atlantic NETS
maneuvers to get their shakey bonds approved before the law shuts
the lid on "tax-exempt" sports arenas; or the Portland Beavers' stadium that would
like to hang their taxpayers out to dry; or Oakland's fictional-impact studies
from "Economic Research Associates" who seem to have cut their creative-fiction writing
teeth on such imaginary works as the Yankees and Dallas Cowboy project studies.
This is the same outfit, by the way, that did the market studies for - you guessed it - Cal Expo's
NBA plan! The Same 'Economic Research Associates' (or, AECOM, by another alias)
that served as a data source for Gruen + Gruen Associates in their economic analysis as consultants to
- you guessed it again - Cal Expo!
Then there's the Bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes, and some Vegas arena zombie that appears to be
still prowling the backstreets of Nevada; and the Gillette Stadium's
'bridge to practically nowhere you want to be'
(between two stadium parking lots) that's being paid for with Federal "Stimulate-Yourselves" funds
(yes, you heard that right); and, well it just goes on and on, doesn't it?
Maybe the best thing Sacramento can do (for any sports deal that includes hard-earned cash,
no matter where someone says it's not coming from) is to wait to see if the 49'rs really do pay almost all
of $1B(illion) pricey-tag on their new Santa Clara stadium. If it's going to be such a 'no tax/low-impact'
deal, we wonder how come they mailed out promos for it to 46,000 Santa Clara registered voters? Ah, the list goes on and on. It seems the stadia-game folks
think they're the only game in town, or at least have convinced us that they are. Otherwise how could they
possibly keep coming back to "fool us thrice?"
Don't we get it? This ain't Mr. Rogers "Neighborhood". It's PT Barnum come to town,
(speaking of elephant poop.) It's not about taking your kids to the ballgame for
a little family R&R on Sunday afternoon. You can't afford it, anymore. It's about
Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs) and $50 tee-shirts
and media-rights and coffee mugs. As one judge in a recent lawsuit by a fan
stated, “it is common knowledge that professional sports franchisees have a sordid
history of arrogant disdain for the consumers of this product.” We might add their
arrogant disdain for "taxpayers", "cities", "the game" and anything else that looks like
something interesting to eat (i.e., "turn profit").
It's not even about 'the game' anymore. It's about litigation, and city-pockets and your gullibility.
On second thought, maybe we Sacramentans should do ourselves a favor and just
get out of the game? A home for the Kings would be nice, we agree. Nicer if we
we had a winning team. But nothing our city goverment and treasury should be
darning its socks about. Our planning department can certainly help anyone with
some money to burn and a love of the game find a few nice parcels of available
private land that might be suitable
for their project. If they think they can build it and make money from it,
well, by all means, they should do themselves and us a favor. But if they
can't do it without public money or concessions (or "preservation funds",
or "stimulus packages", or "special bond issuance", or other
"creative-terms-for-dipping-in-the-public-trough")
- nada, zip, zero - then, sorry, forget it. That's how capitalism works. Not so?
- Red Slider, www.ceav.us; 11/25/09:
Sorry, we can't give you a cover-page view of "Economic Research Associates" actual
market study. Even though its a public document done for a public agency, Cal Expo
chose to keep it locked against copying. If you wish to see a full copy of their
report, click
ERA Market Study
For a look at the way "Economic Research Associates" (ERA) works,
look at this
yank on the Yankees
article in the "Village Voice"
In fairness to Gruen + Gruen, we do note that they released a
"Peer Review Summary"
in April that found some weaknesses in the ERA studies, such as
conflicts between the projected fair activities and parking and
the ability to run events simultaneous with sports arena events.
Even so, they did use ERA data and their reliance on those sources
calls for some careful scrutiny. In any case, Cal Expo seems to
ignore any and all critical findings or cautions.
