'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,

Sacramento Bee

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.