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Chronicle: A city fights against the flimflam of the old arena

Chronicle: A city fights against the flimflam of the old arena

 


By PAUL NEWBERRY

Congratulations are in order for the brave people of Tempe, Arizona.

They could have cost themselves an NHL team, but it was a small price to pay to hang on to their wallets.

In a rare setback for billionaire landlords and their endless scams to get the public to build them new places to play, Phoenix suburb decisively rejected $2.3 billion proposal which included a new arena for the Arizona Coyotes.

This one was stunning for the NHL and the Coyotes, who thought they had worked their flimflam so well that no one would notice it was anything more than another glaring example of corporate well-being.

Voters seem to understand, deep down, that these things are a bad idea, said JC Bradbury, an economics professor at Kennesaw State University in suburban Atlanta and a vocal critic of state-funded stadiums and arenas.

Why do we subsidize sports teams, no matter how much they claim it will boost economic development? he asked. “It’s like an extended warranty. Once you read the fine print, you don’t want to.

Unfortunately, owners still have the upper hand in their quest for newer, more profitable sports venues.

Unlike the situation that unfolded in Tempe, most recognized that you cannot put these questions to voters. Too many risks there. I just asked the Coyotes, who were confident their proposal would pass easily based on internal polls.

It’s far better to woo local politicians, get them on board, than allow those whose money is actually spent to make the call.

Look what happened in Nashville, where city ​​leaders recently signed a scramble that gives the Tennessee Titans a new domed stadium with the largest public pledge ever, a staggering $1.2 billion from local and state coffers.

Awful. Indefensible, Bradbury describes it. The worst deal I have ever seen.

Unsurprisingly, voters in Nashville and Tennessee have never had a chance to decide if this is how they want to spend all that money.

Their money, it should be noted.

There’s a reason landlords don’t like going to voters. Voters are wary, Bradbury said. But if you look at most city council members, their easy grades. They are mostly male, college educated, wealthy. We are talking about sports fans. You can invite them to cocktail parties in their luxury suites to shake hands with Hall of Famers. It’s easier to convince these people. You cannot invite all voters to the owner’s box.

Meanwhile, another team is desperately trying to secure massive public funding for a new stadium.

The Oakland Athletics want to move to Las Vegas, and they already announced one site, then another, for a $1.5 billion stadium on the famous Strip. They started by asking the public to contribute $500 million. When told it was forbidden, the A’s reduced their asking price to $395 million. But there is still resistance to providing so much money, so the case is not yet finalized.

Whatever the price, it will certainly be a bad deal for taxpayers in Las Vegas and Nevada, according to Bradbury.

Why does this keep happening?” he said. That’s not even a debate. come back again and again. They keep saying this one will be different. But it’s the same old song and dance.

The ever-cunning owners have found another angle to sell their ugly stadium and arena stuff: building more stuff around the site.

Some are called mixed-use developments. In Tempe, all the extra bells and whistles have been described as an entertainment district. Whatever the name, it’s a bad deal for taxpayers.

The Atlanta Braves set the pattern for this shakedown when they moved from fully functioning Turner Field after the 2016 season to a new, largely publicly funded suburban stadium.

But more important than the stadium was the large piece of land available next to it. The Braves were given permission to build a development known as The Battery, which includes restaurants, shops, hotels, apartments and office buildings.

Unsurprisingly, all of that extra income from sources other than baseball has made Liberty Media’s multi-billion dollar team overlords that much richer. Now, of course, that’s the model all sports teams are asked to follow when they start pushing for a new venue.

We even talk about building a similar, but even larger, complex in the northern suburbs of Atlanta this would include an 18,000-seat arena, all with the idea of ​​attracting an NHL team to the city.

Never mind that two previous incarnations, the Flames and Thrashers, both struggled financially and ended up moving to Canadian cities.

An oversized battery would be a terrible idea, according to Bradbury, who pushed back on the Braves-led talking point that his compound has been a huge success for the team and Cobb County.

I was at La Batterie. It’s a good place to spend money and hang out, he says. But most of the people who go there live here in Cobb County. Every dollar they spend at The Battery is money they would have spent outside of the stadium. So when you go to (a restaurant) at The Battery, you’re not going to any other restaurant here in Cobb. It’s not a net gain.

Now that Tempe has rejected the proposal for a new hockey arena, the Coyotes should go elsewhere.

They were kicked out of the last arena they gouged from the public in the Phoenix area, the one across town in Glendale, which forced the Coyotes to play this season in a college hockey arena in 5,000 seats by far the smallest venue in the NHL.

They plan to stay there for one more season, but will surely seek a new home the following year.

Maybe they’ll end up in suburban Atlanta, playing in a new entertainment district like the one they wanted in Arizona.

Rest assured, there is always another scam to be had.

___

Paul Newberry is the national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Email him at [email protected]

Sources

1/ https://Google.com/

2/ https://yourvalley.net/stories/column-a-city-fights-back-against-the-ol-arena-flimflam,396763

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