Negotiations continue to happen in secret across the country, all without the public seeing or hearing about it

This is not going to shock anyone. Sports owners hate when their plans are released and looked at intensively by anyone. Have you ever tried to read one of them? Try taking a look at the “Potomac Yard Economic and Fiscal Impact Study” from the failed Capitals/Wizards to Alexandria, Virginia proposal. The agreements are nearly impossible to read and understand unless you read these types of documents on a daily basis. So, I am not saying that you are an idiot if you can’t understand this document. I think most local leaders couldn’t scrutinize these documents. Sports owners know this and therefore intentionally rush through their arena, ballpark, or stadium demands.

As Economist J.C. Bradbury reminded the Washington Post, this is why “billionaire owners aren’t always forthcoming” with sports venue details. Judith Grant Long, a professor of sports management at the University of Michigan, was a bit more straight-forward when talking about details being hidden from public view: “It’s purposefully, in my opinion, obfuscated from taxpayers”. One well-known economist, who wrote a book on sports teams and lease agreements, called these documents “complex legal artifacts with hundreds of pages detailing byzantine financial arrangements”.

Back in 2014, the Atlanta Braves President, for some reason, decided to be completely truthful in explaining why their latest minor league deal had to be done completely behind closed doors:

“It didn’t leak out. If it had leaked out, this deal would not have gotten done,” he said. Schuerholz told press and business leaders in Atlanta that he couldn’t have completed the Braves’ deal with Cobb County in public. “If it had gotten out, more people would have started taking the position of, ‘We don’t want that to happen. We want to see how viable this was going to be‘” Schuerholz said. – 11 Alive, 05/27/14

With all of that, I wanted to highlight some recent examples where the public was essentially left out of the conversation until the very end. On some occasions, a city will do everything behind closed doors until the last second. Other times, the team will just drop it on a city’s lap and expect it to get done quickly.

• Columbus, Ohio

Here, the city got lazy and had to scramble to save the deal at the very end. This meant that locals got almost no information before they were told where to send their taxpayer money. In June 2019, the city of Columbus, Ohio was still trying to start construction on a new soccer stadium for their MLS team, the Columbus Crew. The proposed stadium was not the sole new addition, as a “renovated practice facility” and a “city recreational park” were also being constructed near the new stadium. Just one slight and little issue. On top of public costs rising to $140 million, if the city and team did not finalize an agreement before August 15, the entire arrangement would be likely killed off. That means that at this time, the city had less than 60 days to get virtually the entire plan done. Why did I say the entire plan? Because so little was done at this point.

As of June 2019:

• The stadium land had been acquired by any involved party.
• The recreation area had not been acquired by any involved party.
• The stadium authority had not been created.
• The city and team agree to use their “best efforts” to get these properties, what does that even mean?
• Infrastructure costs were still not known to any certainty.
• With less than 60 days left, neither the city nor the team had contacted the county yet.

The city was vastly unprepared for this process. Columbus leaders had no understanding of the deal that they were currently negotiating. None. As the public asked for details about what was being agreed to, the city struggled to answer basic questions. A day after the city released a statement saying that they had agreed to pay an “unknown sum” to acquire the stadium land, a city official revealed that the costs of the stadium land were still unknown at this moment. The official even admitted that city money may not be needed to acquire this land! Wait, did the city actually give money to get the land? What or how much was it? How did you agree to an amount yet not know if it was even necessary?

When the stadium deal was announced, the mayor and other city leaders claimed that “no city money would go toward construction of the stadium”. Seems straight-forward. Months later, the draft agreement is released. This document says that land acquisition costs are not included in that promise. That is the city outright lying. Intentionally. What about the team contributing to this deal? Did the city make them guarantee some number? Yes…well, somewhat. The team agreed to contribute “no less than $140 million”. But there are so many ways around this. For one, the team can use proceeds that the city provided and act as if they were the ones who chipped in that amount. Huh? How or why would the city allow for taxpayer money to be used on this deal and have the team take credit for that money?

At least the city got some control over the team by owning the stadium land. Right? No. The team controlled all “acquisition, design, construction, and development” of the land. The city of Columbus owns the stadium land, so the team can save on property taxes. Maybe the city got a better deal on control or revenue? The city allowed the team to have complete control over all aspects of the stadium. The team has veto power. The team can stop any new fees or taxes imposed on them. The team takes 100% of all revenues from the new stadium.

At least we know that the city changed their attitude and got the finances of all the stadium properties in order. Just kidding:

“During the past year, tens of millions of public dollars have flowed toward construction of the Columbus Crew SC’s new Downtown stadium and its…training facility, but the local officials who approved the payments haven’t requested or received any details about how the team spends that money” — Columbus Dispatch, 10/18/22

Before the stadium was even constructed, the Columbus Dispatch congratulated themselves and the city of Columbus. According to the newspaper, other cities take “five years to get a stadium built” while Columbus did it in “14 months”. Is that something to be proud of?

• Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, LSU needs local taxpayers to give as much as $350 million dollars to help build a new sports arena. Until now, the entire discourse has been conducted behind closed doors. This week, the New Orleans Advocate wrote an editorial stating how disappointing it has been that negotiations so far “have proceeded largely out of the public’s view”. The editorial claims that if LSU wants an arena to be built with taxpayers help, “public engagement is necessary”. Considering what LSU is asking taxpayers to give, I would say that public input is close to mandatory.

Presently, the Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF) is making most of the calls and has “narrowed possible developers” down to two companies. When a local reporter requested all public records related to LSU and the arena plan, she was denied access because the records were “within the custody and control of TAF”. The Advocate then wrote a story that quite rightly laughs at LSU trying to claim that they have no copies of any plan to build an arena…or, as the Advocate wrote, it “strains credulity”. The idea that LSU can hide this from the public and at the same time ask the public for money is “outrageous”.

Not to worry, though, as the attorney for TAF says that there is no need for public input yet because this whole thing is in its “early stages”. The attorney is correct in noting that this entire thing is in its early stages. By correct, I mean he could not be any more incorrect as well as flat-out wrong. This thing is far past the beginning and middle stages and is going onto the last stage.

How far along is it?

• The city has already created an economic development tax district for the land where the arena is expected to be built.
• The city Metro Council has already agreed to the project.
• The city is limiting any other projects near the land “in order not to compete with the proposed arena”.

Does construction need to begin before the public is asked or allowed to comment on this project?

• Jacksonville, Florida
  

The Jaguars are owned by a billionaire whose NFL team is ranked 8th out of 32 teams in terms of profitability. Why on earth does the team need anything from the public? Because the Jaguars are not hiding the fact that if the public doesn’t give them money, they will leave the city:

“Do you want to keep the NFL in Jacksonville? If Jacksonville loses an NFL team, they’re never going to get another one” — Jaguars president Mark Lamping, FrontOfficeSports, 09/18/23

Last year, the Jacksonville Jaguars finally told the public about their future plans. Instead of a new stadium, they want to completely re-do the current one to save money! It would include a shade section and would “spur downtown development”. So how much does this money-saving move cost taxpayers? Well, the team says the entire project may cost over $2 billion and the stadium specifically would cost $1.4 billion to redo. All of this would be with the public picking up 50% of the bill. Florida Politics published a document showing a similar but slightly different breakdown.

Let’s separate the two big projects in this document.

• Stadium — According to the documents, the total cost of the stadium would be between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion. The city would be responsible for 67% of the cost, or up to $934 million. Meanwhile, the team “would pay the rest of the bill”.
• Entertainment District — The total cost of this district would be between $500 million and $668 million. The team would pick up 86% of the cost, or at most $568 million. The public would pay the rest.

But since then, the public has been told nothing. Well, the city does need to give the team about $5 million for repairs to the current stadium. But outside of that, the public has been given rumors when it comes to the stadium deal. Maybe the city can use money from bed taxes? Perhaps the city could look into using money from pension funds? Until an agreement is done between the city and the team, the public will just have to continue and wait to see how much they will be forced asked to pay.

In a recent poll, just 6% of Jacksonville residents felt it was a good idea for the city to spend $1 billion on this plan. I suspect the other 94% will be the losers in the future.

• Charlotte, North Carolina
  

Will someone please help David Tepper, owner of the Carolina Panthers? The man has a net worth above $20 billion yet cannot understand why the public is not jumping into their own pockets to help build him a new stadium. He can’t and shouldn’t be forced into doing this alone. When asked how a new stadium should be funded or paid for, Tepper challenged fans and residents by stating that the “community’s going to have to want it”. As the Charlotte Observer wrote in a story, Tepper comes off the same way to fans as he does to current and former employees…“like an entitled, immature man who can’t seem to think of the many ways this could have been handled differently”. Fans in Charlotte are just over-reacting to a man who has brought nothing but success (and higher ticket prices) to the area since buying the team several years ago:

“During Tepper’s reign of five-plus years, there has been the Rock Hill training site fiasco, the various executives who have departed mysteriously, all the coaches hailed as saviors and then thrown out in the middle of their respective seasons, the NFL-worst 2-14 record this season, and on and on and on. It’s not coincidence. It’s chaos” – Charlotte Observer, 01/03/24

Over the last few years, the Panthers have spent a significant amount of time with different city leaders to get support going for either a new stadium or a significant upgrade to the current one. The public only hears about these talks after someone leaks it to the press. Last year, a local media outlet did a story discussing how $600 million dollars would be used to “renovate the team’s Bank of America field and a new practice facility”. That is quite a bit of money. Why didn’t we hear about this until now? Because the City Council saw a private “presentation in a closed meeting” months ago that showed how this project would be paid with tourism taxes such as hotel/motel/rental/vehicle. The mayor was furious about this being reported and issued a statement saying how “unfortunate” it was that “discussions that happen(ed) in closed session (were) shared publicly”. That sounds about right. Be mad that the information got released. Not that you tried to continue hiding this essential information.

Months later, the city continued talking to the team in “private meetings”. Lawmakers in the state did eventually approve an extension of Mecklenburg County’s 1% tax on food/drinks. Money from this tax is supposed to go towards the $1.2 billion stadium renovation. But I found it a bit sad that as the extension was about to be passed, I still see local media saying this: “To date, the Panthers and Tepper Sports and Entertainment haven’t commented publicly about intentions to renovate or replace the stadium”. We don’t want to get yelled at by Tepper so we will just not ask or demand answers about where the money is going.