Gehrig Saldana
Gehrig Saldana
                             

04/23/07  It's like d?? vu all over again -- but not exactly.

The other night as Dallas Mavericks whupped Seattle Sonics, our play callers talked about the Sonics leaving Seattle.  They talked about how bad it would be for Seattle if the Sonics leave -- just because the voters/taxpayers wouldn't give the team owners $300 million toward a $500 million new sports arena.  Mind you, the $300 million would not include land acquisition or parking ($150-170 million). 

When there's talk about how great the Hicks/Perot arena has been for Dallas, no one ever talks about how devastating the arena sales tax (car rentals and hotel/motel rentals) has been on our convention business.  We have invested billions in our convention center, and it is now totally under utilized. 

		That's because we can't get big conventions anymore.
		That's because we are no longer an affordable market for conventioneers.
		That's because our car rental and hotel/motel taxes are so high.
		That's because of the arena sales tax.

We hear promises of new jobs with sports arenas, but they are just former employees who worked at the old arena.  What about the lost jobs from the restaurants and businesses that depended on our former convention business?

Seattle is not Dallas.  They are California-lite.  Seattle voters have watched city after city get blackmailed by sports team owners wanting taxpayers to pay for the latest bells and whistles that increase the owners' profits and take a huge bite out of local government infrastructure budgets.  Seattle voters supported "Initiative 91" which would only allow tax dollars to be used for a new arena, UNLESS the investment yields a 4.75% profit for the city/taxpayers.  What a novel idea! 

Why shouldn't taxpayer investors make money on their investment?  What investment firm would stay in business if their clients did not make money on their investment?

Initiative 91: Seattle rejects sports subsidies P-I reporter Angela Galloway, 11/8/6

Seattle voters likely doomed the Sonics' future in the city Tuesday -- but don't count the suburbs out yet, the team's new owners said.    "The team fully intends to honor its lease at KeyArena until 2010 and then hopes to relocate to a new facility outside of Seattle, but within King County," Clayton Bennett, chairman of the Oklahoma-based ownership group, said in a statement.    Initiative 91, which aimed to slap down taxpayer-funded subsidies for professional sports teams, was leading by an overwhelming margin Tuesday.    I-91 would prohibit Seattle from supporting teams with city tax dollars unless such investments yield a profit on par with a 30-year U.S. Treasury bond, currently about 4.75 percent.    Chris Van Dyk, who headed the campaign, called any claims that state lawmakers legislators might now authorize a publicly subsidized arena in elsewhere in Western Washington "baloney."    "With this kind of vote in the city of Seattle, it's extremely unlikely that any tax subsidy would make its way through the Legislature, particularly one without a public vote," as Bennett has called for, Van Dyk said. And "on the outside chance that one did, we would work to block it." ... There was no organized opposition to the measure, but some civic leaders, including Mayor Greg Nickels, said it went too far.    "We are not in the business (with the city's) opera or symphony or ballet or sports to make money for the city treasury," Nickels said recently.    "What we're trying to do is have a high variety of cultural activities." ... The new owners insist that they hope to keep the teams in Western Washington. But to stay, Bennett has said, they must have a new arena funded with taxpayer contributions. ...

The Seattle Mayor's comments are interesting.  Comparing an opera house or a sympathy hall to a sports arena is like comparing a day boating at the lake on a pontoon to an oceanic cruise on a luxury liner.  Still, why shouldn't an opera house or symphony hall be profitable?  I opposed the performance hall and the opera house bond elections because neither are essential services.  City governments just cannot get the drill about eating your vegetables before desert.  Taxpayers/voters in Seattle made sure their elected officials got the drill.  If city officials want taxpayers to pay for desert before the citizens have had their essentials, they should guarantee taxpayers are going to share in the team owners' profits.

Sports team owners do not take rejection easily.  When we were in the middle of the campaign to block the arena sales tax (late 1997 until January, 1998), we knew Hicks & Perot (team owners) and Our Downtown Betters would come right back at us even if we won that election.  They were determined to get their arena at our expense.  After getting their rears kicked by the voters, the Sonics' owners took their road show to the state legislature where they expected to buy enough votes to get public bucks to build their desired new arena in a Seattle suburb.  That's the problem with expectations -- sometimes they just don't happen.

Sonics present plans for new arena; Team seeking $300 million for multiuse facility By Chris McGann, P-I Capitol Correspondent; Friday, January 19, 2007

OLYMPIA -- The Sonics came to Olympia on Thursday and presented lawmakers with tentative plans and a $530 million price tag for the new multiuse arena they want taxpayers to finance with at least $300 million. ... "We have been confronted by construction costs that are rising on a daily basis and have made the project more expensive than other recent arenas," Sonics owner Clay Bennett said in a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire and legislative leaders.    Angry opponents vowed to block the project if lawmakers strike a deal with the team.    "This is the biggest waste of money I can imagine," said Adam Glickman, spokesman for the powerful Service Employees International Union. "The Legislature should stop wasting time and money with this issue and move on to things that matter."    The SEIU put the muscle behind Seattle Initiative 91, which prohibited the city from using tax dollars to subsidize a pro team unless the subsidy generates a certain profit for the city. The measure doomed the chances of the team staying in Seattle; it is now looking at Bellevue or Renton.    The team's new owners have said they may leave the state if they don't get what they want from lawmakers; but after the former owners' failed efforts last year, the team is re-framing its sales pitch.    Sonics representatives who testified before the Senate Ways and Means Committee said lawmakers should think of the project as an opportunity for growth, not a handout. ... "it's asking the Legislature to authorize King County to engage in an economic development project," said lobbyist Linda Hull, who represents the team. ... Former Sonics coach Lenny Wilkens spoke for the ownership group in Olympia.    He said KeyArena was "a little bit obsolete."    "We want something bigger and better that all the people in the Northwest can utilize," Wilkens said.    The team has indicated public money is a prerequisite for staying in the region, but Wilkens also noted that staying allows the team to tap into the nation's 12th-largest TV media market. ...  The facility the team wants built would be 700,000 to 800,000 square feet and seat 18,000 people for basketball games, according to the letter. It also would be a venue for hockey, arena football, concerts and conventions. ... It would cost between $340 million and $360 million, according to the letter. That does not include $150 million to $170 million needed for the land or parking facilities, Bennett wrote. ... Prentice echoed the Sonics' assertion that the state authorizes many economic development projects that include tax subsidies without asking voters.    She said the opposing notion is mainly being pushed by people who are not looking at the bigger economic picture. ... Previously, Gregoire had said she does not view a public vote as a necessary element of negotiating the proposal.    "The governor has got wax in her ears if she thinks the public is not going to demand a vote on this," Van Dyk said. ...

Doesn't that sound familiar?  "She said the opposing notion is mainly being pushed by people who are not looking at the bigger economic picture."  What happens to people when they get elected to office?  Why do they suddenly become patronizing and dismissive of the very people who put them in office?  That "bigger economic picture" the governor mentions does not trickle down to the folks who must foot the sports team owners' bill.

Team owners are frequently great liars.  In November,  the chair of the Sonic's Oklahoma-based ownership group, said "The team fully intends to honor its lease at KeyArena until 2010 and then hopes to relocate to a new facility outside of Seattle, but within King County."   Five months later, the same Clay Bennett says the 2007-08 season is the last one the Sonics will play in Seattle. 

Bennett: Sonics likely leaving Seattle after next season April 17, 2007

SEATTLE (AP) -- SuperSonics majority owner Clay Bennett says the NBA team likely will not play in Seattle beyond the 2007-08 season.    Bennett said Tuesday that Gov. Chris Gregoire won't call lawmakers into special session so the team can continue to push for taxpayer money for a new $500 million arena. And he said the Sonics will honor their KeyArena lease that runs through 2010 -- but most likely only through "a legal exercise."    "That may or may not mean the team will play there," Bennett said during a conference call. ... Bennett, whose investor group bought the team last year from a local group headed by Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, is a prominent Oklahoma City businessman, and the sale prompted widespread fear among Sonics fans the team would be moved to Oklahoma. Bennett promised to keep the team in the Seattle area if a deal could be struck for a new arena.    On Monday, legislative leaders decided not to consider the plan for a new arena in suburban Renton during the regular session, which is due to end by Sunday, saying it lacks enough support to pass. ... "The governor has no recollection of any mention of a special session during her phone call with Clay Bennett," said Holly Armstrong, Gregoire's spokeswoman.    Bennett also said he would not bring the arena plan before lawmakers when the next regular session begins in January because he will by then be exploring his contractual right to move the Sonics and the WNBA's Storm. ... The Sonics did not file a relocation application with the NBA before a March 1 deadline, so they must play in Seattle next season. ...

If any city hooks up with this liar, they deserve what they get.  It may not be as easy as Bennett or other team owners think to find another bunch of suckers than the current team hosting municipalities.  Most cities are tapped out as to what they can offer sports teams or any other industry relocation.

As much as I disagree with the Mayor's infatuation with the Trinity Project and her mistreatment of Councilwoman Angela Hunt, Laura Miller was not responsible for Jerry Jones taking his team to Arlington.  We have a ridiculously one-sided lease with the Starplex people that pretty much ties our hands at Fair Park.  We don't get the revenue we were promised from Starplex, but we are bound by the lease terms.  Buying out that lease would be cost prohibitive, then there's all the infrastructure improvements that would be needed to make the Fair Grounds more accessible to the large crowds from Jerry's monster stadium.  Even if we overcame those dollar factors, we are topped out on our sales tax.

Dallas has mass transit.  Jerry Jones, the greedy jerk that he is, paid for an election in Irving to get them to pull out of DART and free up that sales tax for his use.  The voters of Irving declined.  We had no money to offer that Arkansas freak.  There's nothing that Laura Miller or any other past mayor or future mayor could do to change that obstacle.  Other cities are in similar situations.

Oklahoma City may have been able to open their arms and arena to New Orleans Hornets, but the Hornets were not in a position to make a lot of demands on the OK City taxpayers.  Does Oklahoma City have the $$ to build a $500 million sports arena?  More importantly, does OK City have the fan base to support a full-time team?  Last I heard, Oklahoma City is not a major media center like Seattle.  Nor, does Oklahoma City have the high dollar resident base as Seattle.

Nobody will win if the Sonics leave Seattle, but the greedy team owners don't care about the long term good of their team or Basketball, much less the Sonics fans. 

We can love the game, love the players, love the team, but the owners have the gold.   Those with the gold rule.

sb