Washington, D.C., officials currently are lobbying Major League Baseball to relocate the Montreal Expos franchise to the nation's capital. The city is offering to entirely fund the construction of a new stadium for the team. The money would come from stadium-related sales taxes and from a business tax imposed on the largest private companies in the city. American City & County recently asked readers of its e-mail newsletter if local governments should finance the construction of sports stadiums and arenas. Below is a sampling of responses.
“What happens when the economy slows and the average fan realizes they can't pay $165.00 for two tickets, parking, food and drink? Couple that with a mediocre team and reduced media revenue and ticket sales, and what do you get? You get restructured debt and a municipal black eye. Let the teams and the league work out the financing and construction. The most a municipality should contribute is a reduced sliding scale tax assessment over 15 to 20 years and other meager incentives to help attract or retain a professional team(s). In these days of municipal cut backs, we should not be in the business of subsidizing mega wealthy owners and athletes.”
— Hank Farnham, vice president, Barnstable, Mass., Town Council
“I don't see a problem with local governments financing sports stadiums as long as such use of tax dollars eventually provides a “quid pro quo” return to the taxpayers in the form of greater business volume and increased tax base. However, the only governments that should entertain such a public financing notion should be the governments of those taxpayers who will eventually receive those benefits. I very strongly oppose state governments (for example) doing the same thing. In those cases, most of the taxpayers so “tapped” receive zilch from the venture. Missouri tried to finance a new stadium for the St. Louis baseball team. It was not well received by anyone outside the metro area and never got off the ground precisely for that reason: The only beneficiaries were the people in the immediate St. Louis area.”
— Jerry Goff, director, Franklin County, Mo., Emergency Management Agency
