Stadiums

I thought that Kenneth Zapp's commentary about paying for stadiums in Sunday's Star Tribune was very good:

Let those who benefit pay for a new stadium

The Star Tribune's latest appeal for public funding for sports stadiums ("Ten years of talk is enough," Jan. 8) omits key facts and ignores a principle which should guide our discussion: A stadium should be funded by those who benefit from its existence.

First, the editorial failed to mention the funding plan for the new stadium for the St. Louis Cardinals announced in December 2003. The team will pay at least 75 percent of the costs and various public entities the rest. Why should the public here pay more than the public will pay in St. Louis?

Secondly, the issue of ownership and control of the stadium was ignored. Stadium proponents want the team to pay only one-third of its costs but keep all the revenue derived from its operations. These revenues include naming rights, concession fees, seat license fees, luxury box fees, special event revenue, and others.

The team cannot have it both ways. If it pays only one-third the costs, it should keep the enhanced revenue from the higher attendance and increased ticket prices. The rest of the revenues then could be used to pay for part of the public's contributions.

Finally, the public's contribution can be funded by taxes or fees applied to those who directly benefit from the stadium and the team's use of it. There is no need or justification for government forcing citizens who do not benefit from it to pay for a stadium.

Zapp goes on to list a number of policies that could be used to finance the stadium (first among them being that the team owners should have to pay for some of it!) that I thought sounded very workable.

I am not much of a sports fan, but I enjoy going to games (especially the Saints!) and I recognize that it is a matter of state and city pride to have major league sports teams. But for years and years, Minnesotans have rejected public financing of stadiums for private teams. I say the teams should either sell a majority of their stock to members of the community (like Green Bay) or pay for the bulk of their own stadiums. Like Zapp says: they can't have the community pay for the stadium, and then expect to be able to keep all the revenue, too.