BUILD IT OR ELSE!

BUILD IT OR ELSE!

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

 

There is something really wrong when a major professional sports league mandates that a privately owned franchised team and the tax payers in a city, and state, actually are accosted and threatened with removal of that franchise if they fail to help in funding of a new sports facility. I have absolutely no problem with a league having the first right of refusal with regards to the sale of a franchise, or how a franchise might conduct their business, financially as well as how the build, and the criteria that they use to construct the roster personnel of their team.

 

The competitive nature of sports dictates that each franchise in any sports league must drive to attain some sort of parity in their chosen sport. How a sports teams administration practices are operated also is of paramount to the league and its member teams. There are rules, regulations, and a sort of road map that each member team must follow to continue to be in good standing not only with league administration, but with the other owners.  

 

The new ownership of the Milwaukee Bucks National Basketball Association (NBA) team, Marc Lasry and Wes Edens, purchased the team last spring, and although it was understood that the new owners would seek to build a new arena, the time-line would be leisurely to replace the current playing facility with a brand new arena.

 

Now it looks like the NBA wants the new owners to be playing in a new facility by the 2017 season…..or else. You can sugar-coat the mandate any which way, but the bottom line here is that the league will be increasing the pressure for the Bucks owners to dump a bunch of cash into construction of an arena…..and for the taxpayers to pony up some additional dough!

 

This is a power play, pure and simple, by the NBA, its associate owners, and really by the new owners of the Bucks, Lasry and Edens. The original Bradley Center which morphed into the BMO-HARRIS-BANK-BRADLEY CENTER was erected at a cost of $91 million dollars, $181 million today. It was a gift with no strings attached by the Bradley family of Milwaukee.

 

Former owner Herb Kohl set in place several provisions to ensure that the team would remain in the area of the city of Milwaukee. The date for a new arena (2017) is part of the sale agreement; of course I am not privy to the written contract that spells out the purchase stipulations that appear there but I can recognize a power statement and move when I see one.

 

It’s happened before in Wisconsin, Miller Park in Milwaukee, home to the Milwaukee Brewers, and the renovation of Lambeau Field here in Green Bay…..home to the football Packers. Both were, in part, funded by taxpayer money.

 

In both cases the increase targeted specific 1 or 2% taxes on some sort of city, county, or state service, it didn’t really hurt the taxpayer, but I of course have a single question…..WHY? The owners of these teams (excluding the Packers) are rich affluent hoy-paloy individuals or groups. Although the Packers are basically operated by a board…..members are usually of the same cloth as the owners of the Brewers or the Bucks.

PUBLIC FUNDING OF SPORTS FACILITIES

Whether its football, baseball, basketball, hockey or soccer, the arena or stadium rip-off is eerily the same, the modus-operandi starts off with grandiose visions of dollar bills floating around that people simply pluck out of the air. There’s a period of time when the owners, and the league, recount the numbers of new and exciting situations that will be attracted by the sports teams new home, how the new facility will be a source of community pride…..like a kind of feel good story.

 

Then we tax payers are zapped with the true value to the community of a new sports palace…..and if you are a progressive thinking person, the value figure hits you right between the eyes…..there really is a minimal dollar value. Here’s a break-down of the advantages:

1. Arena or stadium local employment (several hundred game day part time personnel being paid minimum wage).

2. Administration (several office staff personal with substandard wages, and benefits).

3. A facility where locals can go to cheer on their athletic teams.

4. Initially employment for construction (decent wages for about two years), when effort of construction is done, so are the jobs.

5. There will be property, retail, and other taxes that are paid by the professional organization, but in many cases, there are long term tax-abatements tied into professional ownership groups that can be as much as twenty or thirty years in the future.

 

That is just a few of the advantages of publically funded sports facilities, these facilities do not generate additional income…..if there is an existing team, the new digs for a pro team simply shift the income from one place to another.

 

Publically funded areas that can’t be used by the general public, and in some cases (Green Bay Packers) there’s even a waiting list just to purchase tickets. Many arenas have retail shops that the community can visit, and purchase different items…..for a price…..but that’s pretty much it.

 

Over the past decade there have been more than 100 sports facilities that have been funded either wholly or in part by taxpayer funds. Sadly there are a dozen or more that either sit idle, or are grossly underused. I’m of the opinion that if there are public funds that are used to construct a playing field for the pros, it should be used all of the time, by local teams as well as the professionals. It’s really the only way that taxpayers get a return on their money.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!