Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, July 20, 2006
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/14280007p-15088464c.html
As the clock ticks down on the chances to build a largely taxpayer-funded arena in Sacramento, a stadium idea grows in San Francisco -- a planned football yard for the 49ers that is tax-free. What a coincidence.
What an example of San Francisco intelligence compared to Sacramento foolishness? What a blueprint for Sacramento to emulate as opposed to city and county negotiators crafting a quarter-cent sales tax to help build a downtown arena for the Kings?
It would seem so.
In a perfect world, sports owners would always build their own palaces or partner with a big business interest to get the job done.
Why then is Sacramento twisting itself in knots to craft a tax for a $500 million downtown arena when San Francisco is moving forward with a tax-free $600 to $800 million 49ers stadium?
It's not that the Sacramento people negotiating with the Kings are dumb -- they aren't.
Instead, the Sacramento arena riddle is solved by the same line used in the movie "All the President's Men."
Follow the money.
Consider that it's not San Francisco that's moving forward with a tax-free stadium plan, it's the 49ers.
And it wasn't San Francisco that built AT&T Park with minimal public money -- it was Peter Magowan, the Giants' owner. And San Diego could not have built Petco Park without a substantial contribution from San Diego Padres owner John Moores.
The ownership groups were willing to take substantial financial risks to get deals done in each case. Negotiations have lurched along in Sacramento on the premise that the Kings owners -- the Maloof family -- will pay 20 to 25 percent of the $500 million needed.
That's not nothing, but it's not in the same league of risk as Magowan, the 49ers, etc.
Magowan has to pay $20 million a year debt service on his $357 million stadium, which isn't a killer as long as Barry Bonds packs his yard with 2.5 million or more paying customers every year -- a once-sure bet that could change if Bonds is indicted by federal prosecutors today.
As it is, Magowan has major corporate sponsors such as AT&T and Levi's -- big money that supposedly isn't spent in Sacramento.
The 49ers' owners plan to pay the bulk of the $600 million to $800 million for a new 49ers stadium near the current park at Candlestick Point. But they are hoping to get a $150 million loan from the NFL and major concessions from San Francisco to develop hugely expensive land adjacent to the stadium to offset their costs. And the new 49ers stadium would include rows and rows of luxury boxes filled with corporate fat cats, the likes of which do not exist here.
In addition, the NBA is not the NFL -- is not in the business of granting huge loans to teams.
Meanwhile, the land on which the Kings hope to build an arena -- the Union Pacific railyard near downtown -- belongs neither to the Kings nor the City of Sacramento. It belongs to a private owner and will be had at a huge price.
But over and above that, you can't choose your relatives, and you can't choose your sports owners.
Sacramento and the Maloofs are stuck with each other -- are tied by practicality and contractual agreement, can't make a move without the other and often step on each other's toes. They have to get along, have to abide by the rules each sets.
With no corporate sugar daddy out there to soften the blow of a $500 million arena, with a Kings' ownership group unwilling to take a potentially dangerous risk a la Magowan -- and with a city and county obliged to deal with the ownership group it has -- you have what we have now:
The city and county of Sacramento trying to play ball with the Maloofs to get an arena that could serve the larger interests of Sacramento.
It's easy to point to San Francisco and ask why it can't happen here, until the facts muddy the picture.
And it would be easy to vote no on a $500 million arena deal in which the city and county pay 75 percent of the tab. Time is running out to get such a deal on the November ballot. We could all vote no. You'd win the logical argument but risk losing the Kings. And there would be no guarantee another franchise would take its place.
Reach Marcos Bretón at (916) 321-1096 or mbreton@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/breton.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/14280007p-15088464c.html
As the clock ticks down on the chances to build a largely taxpayer-funded arena in Sacramento, a stadium idea grows in San Francisco -- a planned football yard for the 49ers that is tax-free. What a coincidence.
What an example of San Francisco intelligence compared to Sacramento foolishness? What a blueprint for Sacramento to emulate as opposed to city and county negotiators crafting a quarter-cent sales tax to help build a downtown arena for the Kings?
It would seem so.
In a perfect world, sports owners would always build their own palaces or partner with a big business interest to get the job done.
Why then is Sacramento twisting itself in knots to craft a tax for a $500 million downtown arena when San Francisco is moving forward with a tax-free $600 to $800 million 49ers stadium?
It's not that the Sacramento people negotiating with the Kings are dumb -- they aren't.
Instead, the Sacramento arena riddle is solved by the same line used in the movie "All the President's Men."
Follow the money.
Consider that it's not San Francisco that's moving forward with a tax-free stadium plan, it's the 49ers.
And it wasn't San Francisco that built AT&T Park with minimal public money -- it was Peter Magowan, the Giants' owner. And San Diego could not have built Petco Park without a substantial contribution from San Diego Padres owner John Moores.
The ownership groups were willing to take substantial financial risks to get deals done in each case. Negotiations have lurched along in Sacramento on the premise that the Kings owners -- the Maloof family -- will pay 20 to 25 percent of the $500 million needed.
That's not nothing, but it's not in the same league of risk as Magowan, the 49ers, etc.
Magowan has to pay $20 million a year debt service on his $357 million stadium, which isn't a killer as long as Barry Bonds packs his yard with 2.5 million or more paying customers every year -- a once-sure bet that could change if Bonds is indicted by federal prosecutors today.
As it is, Magowan has major corporate sponsors such as AT&T and Levi's -- big money that supposedly isn't spent in Sacramento.
The 49ers' owners plan to pay the bulk of the $600 million to $800 million for a new 49ers stadium near the current park at Candlestick Point. But they are hoping to get a $150 million loan from the NFL and major concessions from San Francisco to develop hugely expensive land adjacent to the stadium to offset their costs. And the new 49ers stadium would include rows and rows of luxury boxes filled with corporate fat cats, the likes of which do not exist here.
In addition, the NBA is not the NFL -- is not in the business of granting huge loans to teams.
Meanwhile, the land on which the Kings hope to build an arena -- the Union Pacific railyard near downtown -- belongs neither to the Kings nor the City of Sacramento. It belongs to a private owner and will be had at a huge price.
But over and above that, you can't choose your relatives, and you can't choose your sports owners.
Sacramento and the Maloofs are stuck with each other -- are tied by practicality and contractual agreement, can't make a move without the other and often step on each other's toes. They have to get along, have to abide by the rules each sets.
With no corporate sugar daddy out there to soften the blow of a $500 million arena, with a Kings' ownership group unwilling to take a potentially dangerous risk a la Magowan -- and with a city and county obliged to deal with the ownership group it has -- you have what we have now:
The city and county of Sacramento trying to play ball with the Maloofs to get an arena that could serve the larger interests of Sacramento.
It's easy to point to San Francisco and ask why it can't happen here, until the facts muddy the picture.
And it would be easy to vote no on a $500 million arena deal in which the city and county pay 75 percent of the tab. Time is running out to get such a deal on the November ballot. We could all vote no. You'd win the logical argument but risk losing the Kings. And there would be no guarantee another franchise would take its place.
Reach Marcos Bretón at (916) 321-1096 or mbreton@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/breton.
