Sen. McCain Wants to Buck NFL Blackouts

Creative Loafing's Mitch Perry and the Los Angeles Times report that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is pushing for new legislation to ban blackouts in NFL stadiums subsidized with public dollars.  The "Maverick" of Capital Hill is ironically floating an idea we heard last year from the "Maverick" of the Florida Legislature, Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey:

According to the Los Angeles Times:

McCain's bill also calls for elimination of the sports blackout rule which prohibits a local TV station from showing an NFL game that is going on in its market if the event is not sold out. McCain wants to gut that rule for any team whose stadium was funded with taxpayer dollars.

The blackout is not the paramount measure in McCain's legislation, which is actually about allowing satellite and cable companies to start selling channels on an individual or "a la carte" basis to consumers. McCain says his Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013 will "help shift the landscape to benefit television consumers."
For years McCain has blasted the cable companies for charging customers for channels that they never watch. It's called bundling, and the Arizona Senator said on Thursday it's time for content providers to stop charging that way.
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"When the venue in which these sporting events take place has been the beneficiary of taxpayer funding, it is unconscionable to deny those taxpayers who paid for it the ability to watch the games on television when they would otherwise be available," McCain said.
For all the criticism about the blackout rule, it should be noted that before Congress intervened in 1973, no NFL home games were broadcast in a local market, regardless of whether the game was sold out or not.

The last time a U.S. Senator tackled the NFL blackout issue, it didn't get very far.  However, the NFL did loosen its blackout policy a (teeny, tiny, miniscule) bit last year.

Report: Gov. Scott Begged on Behalf of Dolphins

We know Florida Governor Rick Scott loves Spring Trianing stadium subsidies, but who knew he loved the idea of handouts for NFL stadiums too?

According to a lobbyist quoted in the Sunshine State News, Scott begged the House Speaker, Will Weatherford, to pass the Sun Life Stadium renovation bill:

“The governor was encouraging the speaker of the House to hear the bill,” Ron Book, one of the state's most influential lobbyists, tells Sunshine State News of a rare visit Scott paid to Weatherford's office on May 2, second-to-last day of session.
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“The concept, that because an employer creates jobs they should be subsidized with taxpayer money, is a flawed concept,” (Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami) tells SSN. “Every business, from the one man selling water bottles at the corner of the street to Walt Disney and Publix, they create jobs and they employ people. [Government] should provide a fair tax structure, an educated workforce, and a safe community so that businesses, whatever they are, may be able to prosper.”

Book tells SSN there are no current plans for the stadium funding bill to be revived next session, but that's little comfort to Trujillo, who warns, "They're going to be back; maybe not the Dolphins, but the concept of the taxpayer subsidizing professional sports franchises will come back in one way or another.”

Lay Republican activist Norman Braman -- owner of Braman Honda car dealerships, former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, and lead opponent of the stadium bill – sounded more relieved than jubilant over the demise of the legislation, which he condemns as just so much “corporate welfare.”

"It's over, I've got a lot of other things to be concerned with here; I'm not a sore winner,” the successful billionaire who prides himself on never having received, or asked for, a taxpayer subsidy tells SSN. “[The bill's defeat] is a great win for the taxpayers. I don't think the taxpayers win too many these days, but I'm very pleased by it. I think despite some reactions that I have heard in the community, the community's very pleased as well.”

Scott did not come out publicly for or against HB 1828 during the 60-day session, though his advisers did draw up a list of “principles” the bill should comply with in order for the governor to give it his consideration. According to the Tampa Bay Times, that included Dolphins owner Stephen Ross – a multibillionaire and one of the wealthiest men in America – having to match some of the costs of the improvements, the Dolphins themselves funding a study on the economic impact of the improvements, and a requirement that subsidies be approved by local voter referenda.

Weatherford responded by saying he didn't bring the bill to the House floor because it simply didn't have the votes for passage.

Governor Scott, meanwhile, indicated the bill was necessary to bring much-needed Super Bowls back to Florida.

And that's how it goes in the Stadium Game...

Hope for New Stadium Fans Everywhere

A glimmer of hope for stadium fans everywhere - jean-maker Levi Strauss will pay $220 million over the next 20 years for naming rights to the 49ers' Santa Clara stadium.

It's one of the largest naming-rights deals ever and, according to the Mercury News, is larger than the naming-rights deals "scored by the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Raiders, Oakland A's, Golden State Warriors and San Jose Sharks -- combined."

Unlike many other teams' naming rights deals, 70% of these proceeds will help pay off Santa Clara's $450 million in short-term construction bonds.  Add that to $300 million in seat licenses going toward the city, and Field of Schemes' Neil deMaus gives this stadium subsidy a rare thumbs-up (so far):

"...taxpayers should have their butts mostly covered, anyway, though it’ll likely require selling some 20-year bonds that can raise money now and be paid off over time with the Levi’s boodle.

"So Santa Clara’s big gamble looks to be working out relatively well: If taxpayers do end up on the hook for something toward the stadium costs, it should only be a tiny fraction of the $1.2 billion total construction cost. Which doesn’t necessarily make such a risky maneuver a good idea for other cities — not every team can sell its naming rights for $11 million a year, and Santa Clara got very lucky that the 49ers got good just in time for those PSLs to go on sale — but at least those who were worried this would be a Cincinnati-style taxpayer albatross can breathe a little easier."

Marlins Close off Top Deck

Neil deMaus of Field of Schemes on the Marlins' decision to close its upper deck for some weeknight games:

That’s right: On top of setting a record last year for worst attendance in the first year in a new stadium, and being dead last in the league in attendance in their second year (though three American League teams have even sadder ticket sales, including the second-place Kansas City Royals), now the Marlins are using a cost-saving trick — and no matter what the team says about a “better fan experience,” this is mostly about saving operating costs by shutting down concession stands and restrooms in underused areas — that has previously been used only by teams demanding new stadiums because their old ones are so poorly attended.

He also adds one last link to a Miami Herald article about businesses backing out of deals to open up in the stadium's garage.

Henderson: Free Ride for NFL in Tallahassee is Over

The Tampa Tribune's sports-turned-metro columnist Joe Henderson writes this morning the "free ride for NFL in Tallahassee is over":

The National Football League’s business model basically goes like this: We get all the money and the public pays the bills. I actually have a grudging admiration for the amount of gall it took for the NFL to make that its corporate mission statement.

The basic game plan is to use as many public dollars as possible to build palaces filled with luxury boxes and premium seats priced beyond the range of the average taxpayer. In NFL-speak, this is known as “being competitive.”
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The NFL pulled in an estimated $9.5 billion in 2012, including $4 billion from television contracts. That figure will go up to $5 billion annually starting this year through 2021. And as long as we’re being so liberal with “B” words, Forbes estimates the net worth of Dolphins owner Stephen Ross at $3.1 billion.

This is probably a good time to remind everyone how Lightning owner Jeff Vinik paid for the $42 million renovation last year at the Forum. For me, that translates roughly to this: Fix up your own damn stadium, Dolphins.
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All of this is a cautionary tale for any plans involving the Tampa Bay Rays and downtown Tampa, or anywhere else in the area. Mind you, I believe Tropicana Field is the worst excuse for a big-league baseball stadium in the country. I also have no idea how to pay for something to replace it.

If what we saw in the Legislature is any indication, though, it probably won’t involve a trip to Tallahassee. That would seem to be a waste of time.

Henderson makes lots of good points, except if there's one thing we should never underestimate, it's the lasting power and popularity of pro sports teams - especially compared to politicians. 

Dolphins' CEO Mike Dee, who criticized House Speaker Will Weatherford and called the team's future in South Florida "clearly bleak," is no stranger to the stadium subsidy game either.  He was the man behind the Red Sox' $99 million, taxpayer-funded spring training stadium in Fort Myers.  And all he had to do was threaten a move (to Sarasota) in 2008, even though the Sox' park in Ft. Myers was just 15 years old at the time.

Marlins, Rays Attendance Watch

One month into the season, the Rays' 21,322 per game average is up a hair (500 fans per game) from last year - good enough for 23rd in the majors.  But we'll see what a mid-week series against Toronto does to that. 

At least Tampa Bay is faring better than the league average in one regard - the majority of teams are posting drops from a year ago, with the average crowd 700 fans per game smaller than in 2012.

The perennially-strong Mariners are struggling.  The surprisingly-successful Royals are struggling.  The Indians are averaging a league-worst 15,167 fans per game.

But no team will face as much scrutiny this year as the Marlins, who are down almost 11,000 fans per game from the first month of 2012.  It's more than a sophomore slump.

In fact, it's everything Maury Brown, of the Business of Baseball, predicted pre-season when he said the Marlins would see the biggest second-season attendance drop in modern stadium history.  Last week, he tweeted:

And today, Brown expanded his thoughts into column form.  He posted a nice chart of all the Selig-era stadium dropoffs from Season 1 to Season 2.  And he actually corrected my fuzzy math, pointing out the Marlins will only break the Rays' '98-'99 dropoff if they draw somewhere in the 17,125 range:

So, it’s very possible the Marlins could end worse than the Rays. It’s early, and anything could happen, but odds are good the Marlins aren’t going to get any better in the standings and Loria certainly didn’t make any extra friends in the offseason.
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As of now, the Marlins are averaging just 92 more per game than their last year in Sun Life Stadium that they shared with the Miami Dolphins, was never designed for baseball, and had no roof. 

Catching Up on Reading: Dolphins, Falcons, Cubs, and More

Last week, as the sausage factory in Tallahassee cranked out deal after deal, the Miami Dolphins were left sitting on the sidelines, their deal for state stadium subsidies dead.  Now, the team's billionare owner, who is upset at not getting $380 million in tax dollars, is essentially threatening to use his financial and political power to exact revenge on the politicians.  This should be fun to watch.


On the other hand, you've got the Falcons celebrating their stadium deal with pretty pictures.


Forbes has an interesting take on the Cubs' stadium threat, implying the team isn't hurting for money, but the Ricketts family is...because they weren't really rich enough to buy the team in the first place:

But the team’s need for more money is not so much tied to its antiquated ballpark, but rather the huge amount of debt the family used to purchase the team, Wrigley Field and 25% of Comcast SportsNet Chicago for $845 million from the Tribune Co. in 2009. The team still has almost $600 million of debt from the purchase.

The team is highly profitable before debt service, posting operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $32 million in 2012. But that is partly due to Ricketts chopping payroll. This year the Cubs opening day payroll was $104 million, $43 million less than 2010.

It's interesting to see what happens when businessmen buy billion-dollar sports franchises when they don't have the cash to pay for them (right, Glazers?).


My counterparts across town at WFTS took a look at the "dirty dining" at local stadiums.  Looks like eliminating risk of food illnesses remains an issue at Tampa Bay's sports venues, albeit a minor one.  You can see my 2011 story on the topic here.


Finally, Lightning owner Jeffrey Vinik is closing his hedge fund to focus on his team and other real estate venutes:

Vinik, whose net worth is estimated at about $500 million, has been particularly active as a real estate investor in Tampa's Channel District. He recently pulled out of a bid to buy and redevelop the troubled entertainment complex known as Channelside Bay Plaza. However, he still controls a large swath of real estate around the Times Forum and could play a pivotal role in downtown Tampa redevelopment. 

Should We Even Acknowledge Individual Franchise's Profits/Losses?

Yesterday, we looked at a Slate piece that implied the NBA will continue to use Seattle to blackmail other cities into a variety of concessions (usually arena-related).  But there's another lesson to be learned from the league's rejection of the Kings relocation.

The NBA is basically asserting it is a single business controlling where its 30 franchises operate.  All four of the major leagues have argued this at some point: that they are each one business with 30-some-odd locations, rather than 30+ businesses each that make up a coalition. 

And while the Supreme Court ruled against the NFL's single-entity monopoly in American Needle, Inc. v. NFL), the leagues still essentially operate as monopolies.  It's not like a motivated businessperson could simply start up his/her own big-league franchise and enter the market.

Furthermore, MLB - unlike the NFL, NBA, or NHL - has legal protection as a monopoly in the form of its sacred antitrust exemption.  MLB is a single entity.  Which, should lead us to ask one very important question:

If MLB is a single business and it's raking in record revenues, why should we have sympathy for any individual franchise's finances?  The Rays operate within the MLB business model and their diminutive payroll is a business choice MLB made.

Now, before you start blowing up the comments section, realize we can still have sympathy for the hard-working Rays players who spend half their time in a half-empty dome. 

But the nature of the stadium discussion in Tampa Bay (and elsewhere) shouldn't be about whether the team needs to relocate to survive;  it really is only about whether MLB thinks it could bolster its bottom line by relocating the franchise to another market.

In that context, relocation (and even moreso, contraction) doesn't make a lot of sense for MLB.  And for local municipalities, it may make even less sense to spend huge chunks of public revenue on a profitable corporation that brings in nearly $8 billion annually.

Leagues Still Finding Ways to Blackmail

Following a strong Slate piece about how the NBA wants to keep using Seattle as a stalking horse, The Sports Economist blog expands on a league's need to blackmail cities:

One can see the most obvious example of this in the NFL...the open market in LA just got the normally quite parsimonious citizens of Minnesota to cough up about $500 million for a new Vikings stadium. The Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints almost certainly have LA to thanks for their new or upgraded stadiums as well. All in all, LA is probably worth more to the NFL without a team than with a team.

Just ask St. Pete residents what it's like to help build new stadiums for the White Sox, Giants, and Mariners.

Just ask Jerry Reinsdorf or Peter Gammons, who have touted how blackmail and leverage get MLB stadiums built.

Or just ask the Cubs, who are unconvincingly telling Chicago it will "consider a new home" if it can't get its desired renovations at Wrigley (just a couple of years after leveraging Naples for a new $99M stadium in Mesa).

Next post, we'll chat about other lessons learned from the NBA's Seattle situation.

Counties Scramble for Spring Training Subsidies

Echoing recent stories on Shadow of the Stadium and in the Tampa Tribune, the Tampa Bay Times writes this morning that there won't be nearly enough bed tax dollars in Pinellas County to feed all the hungry mouths asking for it. 

In fact, this spring's legislation that aims to fee up $50 million at a time for new and renovated spring training stadiums may not be doing Tampa Bay any favors; it's pitting Florida communities against each other in competitions to spend more money on stadiums, instead of beach renourishment, tourism marketing, or other capital projects:

"That legislation was not helpful. We need to keep a nucleus of teams in the area to keep spring training viable,'' Pinellas Commission Chairman Ken Welch said. Bed tax money may be needed to "either maintain the teams we have now, or allow us to add a team, or if we lose the Blue Jays, replace them.''

Welch's point is that $50 million in county bed tax money would not be well-spent if it ultimately causes the Rays to leave Florida altogether. 

And of course, many - as this blog has suggested before - see it as unnecessary taxpayer handouts:

"It's odd that we would spend taxpayer money to move one team to the West Coast, then two teams to the East Coast,'' said Dunedin Mayor Dave Eggers.

"We used to be upset about Arizona stealing our teams. Now we are almost encouraging cities within Florida to steal from each other, and using lots of taxpayer dollars.''

Another interesting point was made by Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala, whose ex-husband Jack Latvala was the legislator behind the push for new spring training spending:

"Beach nourishment has to be the top of the list, and maybe there's not money for anything else after that,'' Commissioner Susan Latvala said.

The Times story didn't mention the commission's most conservative member, Norm Roche, who suggested in 2011 that the bed tax dollars go toward a different kind of park - public parks.  At the time, Roche had just voted against the county extending its five-cent bed tax to 2021 (the vote passed anyway) and he made it clear he thought there were better uses of tax dollars than stadium subsidies.

So while proponents of a new Rays stadium should realize they "don't have a lot of time" before available bed taxes get gobbled up, let us not forget a lesson learned from the Tampa Bay Lightning: if stadium construction is really a worthwhile investment, an owner can pay for it on his own anyway.