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For more information about the
NO DC taxes for baseball! Campaign, go to:
www.nodctaxesforbaseball.org, call 222-0746
or write to the Campaign
c/o Friends of the Earth, 1717 Massachusetts Ave NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036-2002
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, October 5, 2004 |
CONTACT: Ed Lazere, DCFPI, 202-408-1080
Chris Weiss,
Friends of the Earth, 202-222-0746 |
The No DC Taxes for Baseball Coalition Sponsors Rally to Oppose Mayor Williams $440 Million Stadium Plan
DC Resources Should be Used for Badly Needed Service
Improvements, Group Says
A coalition of 22 organizations and hundreds of DC
residents held a rally today to oppose Mayor Williams' plan to build a
$440 million baseball stadium with taxpayer funds. The No DC Taxes for
Baseball Coalition does not oppose the return of baseball to the
District of Columbia but believes a new stadium should be financed
privately, by the new team's owners.
The rally-goers will be addressed by a group that
includes existing DC Council members, victors in the recent DC Council
primary election, representatives of community organizations, and
other DC residents.
The Coalition opposes the mayor's plan for several
reasons:
The Mayor's stadium plan puts a baseball stadium ahead
of other more important needs. Taxes raised for a baseball stadium
could be used to re-build schools, keep Metro costs down, support our
libraries, preserve affordable housing, and revitalize neighborhoods.
The Mayor's stadium plan is a sweetheart deal that
benefits wealthy Major League Baseball Owners: According to the
Washington Post, the Mayor's offer to have the city build the stadium,
charge only a nominal lease to the new team, and .give away 100% of
the revenue from naming rights "was one of the most generous
deals some baseball officials had seen." If DC pays for the
stadium with public funds, the new team owners can pay top dollar for
the Expos to MLB instead of financing the stadium themselves. Major
League Baseball paid $120 million for the Expos just two ago, and now
they want to sell it to the new DC owners for $300 million!
The Mayor's Plan Won't Meet the City's Real Economic
Development Needs: Economic studies on the impact of stadiums
consistently find that they do not create jobs or boost incomes, and
they do not encourage development in surrounding neighborhoods. A DC
Stadium would be unused 3 of every 4 days and mostly would create
part-time, low-wage jobs without benefits.
Back to top of page
Taxes Should Not Be Raised for Baseball
When DC Has More Urgent Needs
"I have talked to very few people who think that
baseball is the top priority in the District of Columbia. Education,
schools, yes, top priorities. Baseball, not really.... Would I like
baseball back in Washington? I'd love to have baseball back at RFK but
I'm not prepared to raise taxes to build a new baseball stadium, not
when practically every school but two In ward 6 are falling apart. I'm
not prepared to raise to raise taxes for a baseball stadium when the
woman who runs the birthing clinic at the edge of wards 5 and 6 tells
me that only 10% of the women who present to her clinic ...are low
enough risk for her to take in the clinic. That tells me something
about the state of health in the District of Columbia. I am not ready
to do taxes for baseball."
Council Member Sharon Ambrose June 12, 2003
Mayor Williams has proposed a new tax on DC
businesses-$24 million per year for the next 30 years - to help pay
for a stadium. Paying for the stadium with new taxes, he argues, will
not detract from funding for other city services. Mayor Williams also states that the new
business tax would not be adopted to fund any other purpose.
What this really means is that the Mayor is willing to
raise taxes to pay for a baseball stadium but not for the other
priorities of DC residents. DC residents understand that spending $440
million to build a baseball stadium would take funds that could be used to meet more critical
needs. That is why most DC residents oppose public financing for a DC
stadium. An August poll of likely DC voters who are members of the
local affiliate of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), for
example, found that 70 percent do not want public funds used to build
a baseball stadium.
DC residents have used the annual Citizens' Summits and
other forums to highlight their priorities, and a baseball stadium has
never been anywhere near the top of the list. Instead, DC residents
have said they want city funds invested in:
- Affordable Housing
- Health Care
- Libraries
- Education
- Clean-up of the Anacostia River and other environmental needs
- Lead water pipes
- Metro's funding shortfalls
Rather than investing time, energy, and a substantial
amount of resources in a baseball stadium, District leaders should be
focusing their efforts on addressing the issues that matter most to DC
residents.
Back to top of page
DC's Stadium Offer is a Sweetheart Deal for Major
League Baseball, But Not for DC Residents
"...So when they (Major League Baseball) approach
cities and ask the cities to construct new baseball stadiums, their
underlying theory is the more money the city puts in to building the
baseball stadium, the more money they can charge the potential owners
for the baseball team.... If Major League Baseball can 'shnooker' a
city into paying 100 percent of the costs of building a new stadium,
they can get the maximum amount of money from the potential owner to
buy the team."
DC Council Member Jack Evans, June 12, 2003
Major League Baseball operates as a monopoly, which
means it controls where new teams will be established. This allows the
League to grant the team to the city offering the most favorable
terms, which usually includes a new stadium built with public funds.
According to many observers, DC's stadium deal is very
lucrative for Major League Baseball. The District would finance the
stadium and charge the team owners only a modest lease. Meanwhile,
team owners would collect all revenue from sale of naming rights and
parking.
- Washington Post columnist Tom Boswell wrote:
"The Mayor has made the ultimate, some would say extravagant,
offer-you-can't refuse bid to get the Expos... For a dilapidated
franchise that some think should be contracted out of existence, the
fifth-largest market in the country is offering to build a ballpark
worth at least $350 million..."
- Sports consultant Marc Ganis noted
that "If it's not the most favorable [in the nation], it's
certainly close to it."
- The Washington Post described DC's
stadium offer as more generous to MLB than the 10 most recent deals.
Major League baseball owners were "amazed" at what Mayor
Williams offered.
Major League Baseball stands to benefit handsomely from
the Mayor's plan. If owners do not have to pay for a stadium, they can
pay top dollar when they buy the team. The Expos are owned by the
remaining 29 Major League Baseball team owners. They paid $120 million
for the Expos just a few years ago and expect to sell it for $300
million or more this year! As part of the Expos' move, the League is
expected to make a substantial payoff to Peter Angelos, the wealthy
owner of the Orioles, who opposes a DC team. A high sales price for
the Expos helps the League support that payoff.
It doesn't have to be this way. Washington is a large
and wealthy area, making it the most attractive location for a new
team. The large profit potential for a DC team means that its owners
can afford to build a stadium. Economist Robert Baade noted that
"They can afford to pay more. In a place [where] the team is
going to have revenue from a whole lot of other sources, it can easily
be financed privately." And stadiums in other cities have been
built largely with private funds, including the SBC stadium in San
Francisco (95 percent privately financed) and the new stadium for the
St. Louis Cardinals (85 percent privately financed). These teams have
aggressively sought corporate sponsorships and other revenues to
support stadium costs.
Back to top of page
A Baseball Stadium Will Not Spur Good Economic Development
"In an effort to revitalize their central city and restore an
aura of cultural vibrancy, many municipal governments have subsidized
efforts at economic development in the city's core. Sports facilities
are often part of
this strategy... The impact of the sports stadium alone, however, is
likely to be small. A stand-alone baseball park with 81 games a year is
unlikely to induce many rational independent retailers to invest in
adjacent businesses."
Andrew Zimbalist, May the Best Team Win (2003, p. 131)
Mayor Williams has proposed building a $440 million baseball stadium
- mostly with public funds - along South Capitol Street near the
Anacostia River. He claims that a new baseball stadium would serve as a
strong engine for economic development along the Anacostia Waterfront,
While a stadium undoubtedly would lead to some new development near the
proposed site, economic research consistently shows that stadiums do
little to create new jobs or boost residents' incomes - the kind of real
economic development the city needs.
- A baseball stadium would go unused roughly three of every four
days each year, making it difficult to be the sole catalyst for
neighborhood development.
- The Anacostia Waterfront area is already slated for major economic
revitalization. The site for the proposed stadium site is in the
area covered by the Mayor's Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, a major
redevelopment plan expected to result in billions of dollars of
public and private investment over the next 25 years.
- A substantial amount of new development already is occurring
within blocks of the stadium site, including the Navy Yard area.
Stadium proponents point to the success of the MCI center as proof
that a baseball stadium will promote economic development. Yet, unlike a
baseball stadium, the MCI Center is a multi-purpose facility that can be
used yearround. In a recent year, the facility was used 217 days. The
MCI Center was also financed largely with private funds.
There is no evidence that a baseball stadium is the best way to
achieve the District's goal of bringing economic development to the
southeast waterfront. Instead, the $440 million planned for a new
baseball stadium could be used to create better jobs, increase incomes,
and revitalize neighborhoods if devoted to investments such as housing,
neighborhood commercial development, infrastructure improvements, and
job training.
Back to top of page
Why Public Financing for a Stadium Does Not Make Sense
Sports stadiums do not promote economic development:
Noted economist Andrew Zimbalist concludes that "every
independent economic analysis of the impact of stadiums has found no
predictable positive effect on output or employment." In layman's
terms, stadiums have not been shown to create new jobs or increase
incomes. The District's own estimate in 2003 - which probably is
optimistic - was that a stadium would generate only 380 jobs for DC
residents, and that includes jobs in the stadium as well as hotel and
restaurant jobs near the stadium. At a $440 million cost, that is more
than $1 million for every job created for a DC resident.
Subsidies for sports stadiums do not "pay for
themselves": Economists have found that even the most successful
stadiums do no generate enough economic activity and revenues to
justify large public subsidies. A study of the Orioles' Camden Yards
stadium found that it generates $3 million in annual economic benefits
each year but has a $14 million taxpayer cost. The authors concluded
that "Even at Camden Yards, public expenditures on the baseball
stadium cannot be justified on the grounds of local economic
development."
Taxes raised for baseball could be devoted instead to
other purposes: While Mayor Williams argues that a new business tax
could be enacted only for baseball, the fact is that this is a new tax
that could be used to support a myriad of needs in the city. Raising
taxes now for baseball would make it harder, if needed, to raise taxes
in the future for other needs.
DC's strengths should allow it to get a team without
heavily subsidizing a stadium: DC is one of the largest and wealthiest
metro areas in the nation, certainly the largest area that currently
has no team. That means a team should be able to be financially
successful here even if the owners pay most of the stadium's costs.
Economist Robert Baade, who has reviewed DC's offer, concludes that
the owners "can afford to pay more. In a place the team is going
to have revenue from a whole lot of other sources, it can easily be
financed privately." (Hamilton and Kahn, 1997, p. 246)
There are a number of cities where team owners have
covered most of the stadium's costs: In St. Louis, a new stadium is
being built with just 15% public financing.
DC can get a better deal given how great DC's market is
for baseball (big and rich). The team can succeed here financially without having
the city pay for the stadium.
Back to top of page
No DC Taxes for Baseball Campaign Organizational
Sponsors
21st Century School Fund
Campaign for the DC School Budget
Council of Latino
Agencies
DC Action for Children
DC Black Church Initiative
DC Fiscal
Policy Institute
DC Library Renaissance Project
Empower DC
Fair Budget Coalition
Friends of the Earth
League of
Fans
League of Women Voters of the District of Columbia
Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia
Manna Inc
National Association of Minority Contractors, DC Office
Neighbors Consejo
Parents United for the DC Public Schools
Save DC Parks
and Play Spaces
So Others Might Eat (SOME)
Statehood Green Party
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
Washington Regional Network for Livable Communities
Wider Opportunities for Women |