http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/14293940p-15136344c.html
Marcos Bretón: Wake up to wonders of new arena
By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 12:01 am PDT Friday, August 11, 2006
There are some of you who are so polarized on the issue of a taxpayer-funded downtown arena that you dismiss any opinion that doesn't correspond with your own.
It's a Balkans mentality descending on Sacramento, one that will be with us until Election Day and perhaps beyond.
I carried that attitude with me on a recent trip to Detroit, a day after it was announced that a $500 million arena deal in the downtown railyard was headed for the November ballot.
Before leaving for Detroit, it seemed reasonable to at least give this plan a fair hearing, to keep an open mind. Then I talked to Kings co-owner Joe Maloof and, frankly, I got mad.
It's nothing against him or his family -- they seem like nice enough people -- but after weeks of back-breaking negotiations, the end result seemed a rout for the Kings' owners. The Maloofs get a $500 million arena, and in exchange pay $20 million up front for future arena repairs and an average of $4 million a year in rent for 30 years.
The Maloofs will also keep all the profits from the arena, including for non-Kings events?
That rankled all the way to D-Town and on the drive from a suburban hotel to Comerica Park -- until rancor gave way to amazement. Suddenly a downtown appeared that was unrecognizable from the downtown of a decade earlier, when a 1996 Detroit Tigers day game was an unnerving experience.
Back then, walking from the parking lot to Tiger Stadium -- in daylight -- was scary in a deserted, dilapidated downtown.
Now Comerica Park is a fabulous public space next door to Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. Both buildings are central to an urban transformation.
"It's become part of the fabric of the community," said Kurt Metzger, director of research for the United Way of Southeastern Michigan and formerly the research director for the Center of Urban Studies at Wayne State University.
"It does give you much more of a feeling of security, like this isn't a bad area. It's more festive. It's comfortable enough to walk around."
Mind you, Metzger doesn't have financial interests tied to Detroit's sports palaces to color his judgments, though I did talk to business folks as well.
Harry Kefalonitis, who owns Harry's Detroit Bar four blocks from Comerica Park, said: "With the stadiums, you can count on the traffic flow of people to spend money. … It's been a great step in creating confidence in investment and infrastructure."
Here is where some of you want empirical proof that Detroit's stadiums were economic engines, and you know what? There is no such proof.
So I asked Metzger, the former urban planner, and he said: "I have problems with economic impact studies. I see the studies and it's almost universally agreed that stadiums don't pay for themselves.
"Is that the be-all end-all of these stadiums? Is that the measure of success? It's very difficult for academics to determine whether certain restaurants or road resurfacing or housing projects were or were not a result of the stadium. … In Detroit's case, they have breathed new life into the community, they are attractive and they do seem to bring people down there."
Have they stopped the Ford Motor Company from laying off hundreds of workers? No. Doesn't Detroit still have one of the highest homicide rates in America? Yes.
Therefore, didn't Detroit have much bigger priorities than building new sports stadiums?
"I came to the United Way to work in the community," Metzger said. "There are always questions of where are your priorities. Sometimes it's easier to build real flashy items downtown than to address social issues. You've got to have both. You've got to have some kind of tax base that will bring money into the community."
Which brings us back to the rich guy making money off our backs. In Detroit, local governments paid $135 million of the $360 million Comerica Park, according to news media reports. The rest came via loans and cash from the Tigers' owners, the Illitch family.
But they get Comerica Park rent free and keep all the revenues.
In percentages, the Illitches' contribution is higher than the Maloofs but couldn't one ask whether Detroit should have offered Illitch millions in tax breaks and booted angry landowners to make way for Comerica Park?
A larger social argument would label that obscene. So are we arguing levels of obscenity when weighing Detroit's example, Sacramento's question and public giveaways to sports owners across America?
Yeah, but there sits downtown Detroit, much better than it was by any measure.
And there sits the abandoned railyard in Sacramento, the focal point of anger from people who probably would dismiss downtown Detroit if they saw it -- and every example that challenges cherished points of view.
About the writer: Reach Marcos Bréton at (916) 321-1096 or mbreton@sacbee.com
Marcos Bretón: Wake up to wonders of new arena
By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 12:01 am PDT Friday, August 11, 2006
There are some of you who are so polarized on the issue of a taxpayer-funded downtown arena that you dismiss any opinion that doesn't correspond with your own.
It's a Balkans mentality descending on Sacramento, one that will be with us until Election Day and perhaps beyond.
I carried that attitude with me on a recent trip to Detroit, a day after it was announced that a $500 million arena deal in the downtown railyard was headed for the November ballot.
Before leaving for Detroit, it seemed reasonable to at least give this plan a fair hearing, to keep an open mind. Then I talked to Kings co-owner Joe Maloof and, frankly, I got mad.
It's nothing against him or his family -- they seem like nice enough people -- but after weeks of back-breaking negotiations, the end result seemed a rout for the Kings' owners. The Maloofs get a $500 million arena, and in exchange pay $20 million up front for future arena repairs and an average of $4 million a year in rent for 30 years.
The Maloofs will also keep all the profits from the arena, including for non-Kings events?
That rankled all the way to D-Town and on the drive from a suburban hotel to Comerica Park -- until rancor gave way to amazement. Suddenly a downtown appeared that was unrecognizable from the downtown of a decade earlier, when a 1996 Detroit Tigers day game was an unnerving experience.
Back then, walking from the parking lot to Tiger Stadium -- in daylight -- was scary in a deserted, dilapidated downtown.
Now Comerica Park is a fabulous public space next door to Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. Both buildings are central to an urban transformation.
"It's become part of the fabric of the community," said Kurt Metzger, director of research for the United Way of Southeastern Michigan and formerly the research director for the Center of Urban Studies at Wayne State University.
"It does give you much more of a feeling of security, like this isn't a bad area. It's more festive. It's comfortable enough to walk around."
Mind you, Metzger doesn't have financial interests tied to Detroit's sports palaces to color his judgments, though I did talk to business folks as well.
Harry Kefalonitis, who owns Harry's Detroit Bar four blocks from Comerica Park, said: "With the stadiums, you can count on the traffic flow of people to spend money. … It's been a great step in creating confidence in investment and infrastructure."
Here is where some of you want empirical proof that Detroit's stadiums were economic engines, and you know what? There is no such proof.
So I asked Metzger, the former urban planner, and he said: "I have problems with economic impact studies. I see the studies and it's almost universally agreed that stadiums don't pay for themselves.
"Is that the be-all end-all of these stadiums? Is that the measure of success? It's very difficult for academics to determine whether certain restaurants or road resurfacing or housing projects were or were not a result of the stadium. … In Detroit's case, they have breathed new life into the community, they are attractive and they do seem to bring people down there."
Have they stopped the Ford Motor Company from laying off hundreds of workers? No. Doesn't Detroit still have one of the highest homicide rates in America? Yes.
Therefore, didn't Detroit have much bigger priorities than building new sports stadiums?
"I came to the United Way to work in the community," Metzger said. "There are always questions of where are your priorities. Sometimes it's easier to build real flashy items downtown than to address social issues. You've got to have both. You've got to have some kind of tax base that will bring money into the community."
Which brings us back to the rich guy making money off our backs. In Detroit, local governments paid $135 million of the $360 million Comerica Park, according to news media reports. The rest came via loans and cash from the Tigers' owners, the Illitch family.
But they get Comerica Park rent free and keep all the revenues.
In percentages, the Illitches' contribution is higher than the Maloofs but couldn't one ask whether Detroit should have offered Illitch millions in tax breaks and booted angry landowners to make way for Comerica Park?
A larger social argument would label that obscene. So are we arguing levels of obscenity when weighing Detroit's example, Sacramento's question and public giveaways to sports owners across America?
Yeah, but there sits downtown Detroit, much better than it was by any measure.
And there sits the abandoned railyard in Sacramento, the focal point of anger from people who probably would dismiss downtown Detroit if they saw it -- and every example that challenges cherished points of view.
About the writer: Reach Marcos Bréton at (916) 321-1096 or mbreton@sacbee.com
