Just a few months after Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida legislature guaranteed state funds for spring training stadiums, the Minnesota Twins were the first team to take advantage, getting a $48.5 million refurbishment in Ft. Myers.
It looks like the team will pay $6 million, the state will pick up $15 million of the tab, which would leave $27+ million for Lee County. In exchange for the $42 million in subsidies, the Twins agreed to extend their lease for another 30 years.
Meanwhile, it looks like the Blue Jays will be the next to take advantage, using the state dollars to leave Dunedin in favor of Palm Beach Gardens, even though their lease in Pinellas County runs through 2017.
One has to wonder if the state is making it too easy for teams to leverage cities against each other...and if taxpayers are paying for stadium upgrades that the teams could have ultimately just paid for themselves. That is, unless you're the legislature and governor, who get a regular earful from pro teams' lobbyists.
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"and if taxpayers are paying for stadium upgrades that the teams could have ultimately just paid for themselves..." Or maybe the "taxpayers are paying for stadium upgrades" to profit from "the teams"? But, I understand the WHOLE picture never matters on this blog (lol)...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2013/03/06/cactus-league-arizona-cities-lose-millions-operating-stadiums/1967219/
Wait, so you're agreeing that stadiums aren't necessarily profitable?
DeleteWhile simultaneously arguing teams would just up and vanish if municipalities didn't build them new stadiums?
DeleteLike I've always known is that, buying a stadium is like buying a car, unfortunately different people pay different prices for the same car simply because there's better businessmen then others, just like there's better journalist then others that gets the real stories. But, regardless, the purchased car helps make you more money then your payments are per month by getting you back & forth from work, gets you to the store, doctors, vacations, etc., and though because some people are simply "lay-downs" or go into a car payment with neg. equity or have bad credit, they pay more for longer, they still end up driving a paid off car for free with equity on top of the years it helped. So like these Spring Training parks, even though they might not make millions in the beginning like people like you want to expect, because like buying a car when you have the most depreciation in value, and most of your payment goes to interest in the first or two, it's about the revenue in time! Also, I come to understand most of you are small picture, and right now people, in big business it's about the whole picture, it's about the long term, like how the Rays success is based on the long term picture with prospects opposed to teams that spend big bucks on players to win a championship that year. But, I guess with you being from Bahstun you might not ever understand it regardless of how it's spelled out. And, please let's not be hypocrites, and act like if any of you owned a team like the Blue Jays, you wouldn't bounce for greener pastures. So in hindsight, let's give the Rays the benifit of the doubt being that like most in the sports world would agree that they're one of the smart front offices opposed to teams ran by bad businessmen (or great businessmen, depending on how you look at it) like the Marlins, Cubs, Browns, Lions, Sac Kings, etc....
ReplyDeleteSure, buying a stadium is just like buying a car... except the prospective buyer wants the taxpayers to help him pay for a new Maserati. Then once Maserati (or a new stadium) begins to age, and its value starts going down, that same buyer will want us peons to help pay for a new Bentley instead.
DeleteYour so-called big picture also says that stadiums -- specifically, publicly funded stadiums -- don't produce the kind of economic impact that you insist they do, and generally constitute an horrific investment of taxpayer dollars. That's not me trolling; that's something that a huge majority of economists worthy of their name agree on (85% of Greg Mankiw's colleagues agreed as much, according to him).
And in all honesty, I would put infinitely more stock on folks like him who have done their research on this for decades, and had their findings peer-reviewed and published in major papers, than some random dude on the street whose attitude can be best summed up as "YEAH LET'S GO TEAM! If you criticize them in any way, then you're just a backward hater."
As I said before, just because you Yinzers are okay with the concept of sinking millions of dollars into what are ostensibly playhouses for billionaire sports owners, doesn't mean residents in every other city should embrace that kind of thinking, too. NEWSFLASH! Cities and fanbases are only of use to the extent that they cater to their whims and makes them as much money as possible. To wit: the Steelers just SUED the city of Pittsburgh so they could add more seats to their stadium on the public dime. But yeah, we should keep giving them the benefit of the doubt, because GO TEAM!
What backwards ideology! Though I understand that I'm right, and that you'll never get it, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. But, if your "theory" was right, then why do cities fight to keep, and bring in different sports teams all the time? Because they lose money for the cities all the time, huh? Yup, that must be the reason... lol
DeleteAnd, again, I understand you feel that you know things, but as for the Steelers situation, they have a lease with SEA that reads that a percentage of the profits are to go to improvements, or the more money their company makes, the more that goes back into the stadium, which is called "capital improvement"! So basically the "taxpayers" leasing company are try to be slumlords, though it's not "taxpayers" money to be spent, it's revenue the Steelers brought in as profit for Pittsburgh. Nice try Key!
So you're admitting some people pay too much for a car...and there comes a point where if you pay too much, you actually lose money on it?
DeleteSo it would stand to reason cities and counties and states should figure out the "breaking point" on when a stadium isn't worth it?
I mean really, why should Sternberg and the Rays organization do any lobbying by themselves, when they can just get folks like you to do it for them?
ReplyDeleteThey do! How do you think I paid for my black leather seats for the season? lol
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