Counties can raise taxes without sales taxes, that just seems to be everybody's bandaid while hotel/car rental taxes are more popular with the citizenry and equally doable.
All that is true. I'm just saying I don't get the opposition to a half percent sales tax increase. I don't think it's going to send anyone to the welfare line. If it helps you get an arena built, I think it's more than made up for with jobs and business development.
SuperBowl is still a long shot proposition. Certainly every new stadium that gets built doesn't get it no matter how great it is. And no matter how many times they decide to award it to a cold weather city once in a blue moon, the same 3/4 locations will always be taking their turns every 5 years meaning that a team basically gets one chance to make the SB happen in their new facility before someone else builds bigger and better and goes to the top of the line.
Recently, every city that's built a new stadium has been awarded the Super Bowl, including cold weather cities. The only one I can think of that didn't get the Super Bowl was the new Gilette, and I think the reason for that is because it's open air, not a dome. Of course now that the NFL is giving it to New York, that door might be open, but it's irrelevant in this case. I'm not saying that it's 100% certain that they get the Super Bowl in Minny, but I don't think it's a long shot, nor is it once in a blue moon. Detroit in '05, Indy in '11, New York in '14. Miami and Houston and Arizona and San Diego (if they build a new stadium) will still be a regular part of the rotation, and once LA gets theirs done, they'll be in the mix too. But the NFL has made it a practice of late to award cities who build new arenas, cold weather or not.
College bowl games, sure they can make one and invite whoever. My point was that college teams decline invites to less-desirable cities (even when they pay more) in favor of vacation hot spots all the time. And the other consideration is that teams fans have to travel to those games. Tell a team they can go to a third tier bowl in Las Vegas, San Diego or Minnesota and what do you think falls to the bottom of the list both in team selection and attendance? Not to mention that winter travel can often be rough.
These are all good points. But again, I'm only pointing out that cold weather cities get college bowl games all the time. The Big Ten championship is going to be in LOS this year, and I believe the runner up was Soldier Field. Why wouldn't Minnesota be part of the discussion going forward? I doubt they'll hold their conference title game in a city that's not part of their conference; they're not going to Miami or Arizona. So their conference title game is always going to be in cold weather. The BCS isn't going to move the Fiesta Bowl to Minnesota, of course, but that doesn't mean they won't get any bowl games.
As for number of events, when a municipality is investing, number of events is far more important than gate receipts unless the municipality is getting a very sizable chunk of that action. Because the main arguments in favor of public financing imho are making the surrounding area a before/after destination and driving more business into your city/county. The public investment is recouped by the businesses around the new stadium or arena making more money and paying more taxes and hiring more people who pay more taxes, etc.
Very good point. More events means more money for the local economy. That's not an issue in Sacramento, where you're building an NBA arena, and you're not in a cold weather city. And for Minnesota, if -- IF -- they get awarded the Super Bowl or a bowl game, the frenzy surrounding such an event is probably worth 20 NBA games to the locals.
As for MLS watch a New England Revolution home game sometime and it will become clear why MLS wants 20k seat stadiums and has made SSS (Soccer Specific Stadiums) part of the entry fee. The only team that does decent in an NFL stadium is Seattle.
I'm not a soccer guy so I still don't get it. Maybe they want a more intimate crowd? Either way, if MLS turns their nose up at a state of the art stadium in Minnesota because it's too big, I'm sure it's not the end of the world.
Note that none of this is an argument against public financing for Sac. Or that a near 50-50 split isn't ideal. I'm just thinking this Minny deal seems exorbitant for something likely to be used 50-75 times a year. Ford Field was a 400 million dollar stadium. Lucas was 720 but built at the height of the real estate bubble.
Ford Field is a decade old. Lucas is an anomaly, really, but $720 million was actually frugal compared with the facilities that have come after it, even in a depressed economy.
I think the Vikings had the city by the balls, really. The NFL is trying it's hardest to get back to LA, and the deal gets sweeter if two teams come, so the Vikings were definitely being courted. And the LA stadium might eventually be built independent of any team funds (maybe they take out the $75 million NFL loan). They've been trying to build a new stadium for years, with little progress. Then, all of a sudden, the roof collapses at the Metrodome in the middle of the season. There was just no way for the city to deny the need for a new facility, and they were between a rock and a hard place. This might not wind up being too sweet of a deal for the city, after all is said and done. But they stepped up to the plate, contributed a significant amount of money to the deal, and now it's done.
This is the cost of doing business. And I know you realize that, so the post wasn't really meant for you. Just pointing out to those who
are opposed for whatever reason to public money being used for a new arena in Sacramento, that if they don't get on board, they're going to lose out. The Maloofs aren't going to pay for a new arena completely by themselves for no other reason than that they don't have to. And if the Maloofs are forced to sell, it doesn't matter who buys the team, a new owner isn't going to foot the bill either. Not when they can find a city that's willing to do it for them. Either get on board or wave goodbye.