Read of the Week: Lightning Prove Again the Value of Sports to Tampa

In case you missed it, Joe Henderson's post-playoff piece about how the Lightning's bid for the Stanley Cup explored the emotional side of sports subsidies and our intrinsic desire to keep our teams - often at any cost.  He spells it out:

Name something else that could cause an estimated 19,000 fans to come to Amalie Arena on Monday night to watch the game on the mammoth scoreboard. That was nearly double the crowd the Tampa Bay Rays drew for a home game about 20 miles away in St. Petersburg, and that raises a question Tampa and the surrounding area have grappled with for years: Are these teams worth the cost?

A point needs to be made up front about the economic impact big-time sports has on a community: ‘Tis a trifle.

I get it.

Eventually we’ll get down to dollar-crunching in the effort to get the Rays a new stadium in the right location, and the price tag will be alarming. They’ll toss around economic impact studies to justify the expense, and most of those will be shot full of holes by people who understand spending that kind of money for a sports team makes no fiscal sense.

Or cents, either.

But I suspect it will happen anyway, on one side of the Bay or the other, and the area will be better for it — and not because of the money they bring here.

The Lightning just spent the last month reinforcing that point.

It's a point that's been made before - my favorite example is the "mailman in the driveway" example from Pete Kerasotis.  Here is an excerpt from his piece in 2010:

"How about that game last night?"

It was my mailman, with me standing at the end of my driveway, chatting about the Orlando Magic's dominating Game 1 win against the Atlanta Hawks the night before.

This, I thought, is what a sports team does. It brings people together with a common topic, and even a common sense of pride. It does it in boardrooms and family rooms, at the water cooler and at the checkout line. 

Actually, Henderson's prose was eerily similar.  This week's piece continues:

Talk about the latest action by the county commission doesn’t dominate the water cooler conversation. People won’t tell their grandkids years from now about the great regulations enacted by city council, but they will recall that year Tampa was turned on its ear by its hockey team.

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At the end of the day,  Henderson acknowledges stadiums are very expensive and cities should spend wisely.  But........

There is something else to remember, too. About midway through the third quarter of that Super Bowl game, do you think anyone cared about the terms of the Bucs’ lease at Ray Jay?

Some people say Tampa is not rich enough, large enough, or passionate enough to support three pro sports teams. I think they’re wrong. People used to say hockey would never work here, either. These teams are part of the city’s fabric and identity. And when times are flush, like now, they bring people together like nothing else can.

As the Lightning just proved, you can’t put a price tag on that.

Unfortunately, municipalities DO have to put a price tag on it as pro teams have become fiercer than ever at the negotiating table and ruthless as ever in demanding public subsidies.  At some point, pro sports is not worth the cost.  But Henderson is right - few fans in Tampa Bay are worried about that this week.

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