The public and lawmakers called Pohlad's bluff. The Twins are still in Minnesota, still doing well, and still without a new ballpark. Some public money is now on the table, but had Pohlad been more up-front with the public in the beginning, the Twins would have had a new stadium a long time ago.
Soon the owners of the new Major League Soccer franchise Real Salt Lake will choose between Murray and Salt Lake City as the site for a proposed soccer-only stadium. But the team wants taxpayers to come up with half of the proposed $60 million construction cost, plus provide the land free.
Salt Lake County is disinclined to pay for the project at the expense of other priorities, such as the Children's Museum, Clark Planetarium and the proposed Salt Palace expansion, and no other government body has stepped forward.
To avoid the fate of the Minnesota Twins, I have a few suggestions.
To owner Dave Checketts: Be transparent. Your request for a nice round 50 percent suggests you think that's what you can get away with, not what you've demonstrated you can't raise on your own. That was Pohlad's mistake. The public has a right to know how much is available to you before it writes a check, and it feels no sense of obligation just because you paid the $10 million franchise fee. Exhaust private investment possibilities and other revenue streams that don't add to the public's tax burden, like private seat licenses and other fund-raisers. Be creative.
Checketts knows how raise money. Last May he joined a $105 million private investment fund with Peterson Partners.
To private capital: Get involved. If the team is viable, a financing plan can be worked out. Just ask the San Francisco Giants, who built a new ballpark almost entirely with private financing.
Last August Checketts told the annual meeting of the Economic Development Corp. of Utah: "It's a stadium that could host 110, 120 events (annually) without too much difficulty and be a real gathering place for the community." He thought he was making the case for public funding, but why doesn't the same argument apply to private financing? Perhaps he was just making up numbers to sell the idea. Would he do that?
To government officials: Be tough. The private capital markets will stay on the sidelines as long as they think government will take the lead. Make it clear it you aren't Checketts' sugar daddy. Political careers have been wrecked on the rocky shoals of crummy sports deals. The loser in this competition between cities could end up looking like a winner down the road.
To Rocky Anderson: Checketts is playing you like a violin. Giving Earl Holding $15.5 million for his property, then asking taxpayers to pay for half of the stadium on top of that, is just too much.
The mayor told the Deseret Morning News last month "There's no question in my mind that it's entirely appropriate for public funds to be used for the soccer stadium." The problem is that the public, whose funds he's talking about, disagrees with him by a two-to-one margin, according to a recent poll.
Sports promoters always try to sell the public on the idea that sports stadiums are "community assets," and that taxpayers have an obligation to pay for them. It's a hard enough argument to make when a team has a
fan base, something Real Salt Lake doesn't have. Just ask Carl Pohlad.
To taxpayers: Don't buy the hype. Checketts also said last August: "That's what professional sports should do. It should create jobs. It should create economic benefits." The problem is, they don't.
Jobs and development are bait to get the public to bite on the stadium hook, but studies have repeatedly shown that sports stadiums don't contribute to economic revitalization. Rocky Anderson says a stadium
can anchor housing and commercial projects. If such projects are worth doing, then do them, but a stadium will not enhance their viability.
Rocky Anderson and Dave Checketts are trotting out all the hackneyed, discredited arguments for public funding. It's time for a new game plan.
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John Yewell is a regular contributor to these pages. He may be reached at johnyewell@yahoo.com.
