LV facing big-league hurdles for pro team

Steve Kanigher and Diana Sahagun

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001 | 4:51 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman looks at the former Union Pacific railroad yard and envisions a venue for big league sports.

That's what mayors do. They dream big dreams for their cities. Goodman, a Philadelphia native, is attuned to big league sports. After all, Philadelphia plays host to all four major professional sports: baseball, football, basketball and hockey.

"As I see it, a major league team builds community pride, a sense of unity and a sense of place," Goodman said. "So that's the reason I am so high on this. I grew up in that kind of environment, and I know what that's like."

The latest outbreak of major league sports fever to strike Las Vegas occurred earlier this month when a rumor circulated that Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics were headed this way. However, the realities of big league baseball dictate that Las Vegas remains a long shot to land the A's, Montreal Expos or any other baseball team rumored to be considering a move for greener pastures.

"At the moment no teams are moving, and expansion is not on the horizon," baseball spokesman Richard Levin said from league headquarters in New York.

Among the hurdles Las Vegas faces:

"Since expansion is not on the horizon, it's a moot point right now," Levin said. "Gambling is certainly an issue, but it is not being addressed at this time."

Levin said cities that have won franchises did so because of strong ownership and broad-based community and political support.

"Obviously, we would want a city that could support a major league team," Levin said. "Market size is a factor but not necessarily a major factor."

One thing Las Vegas potentially has in its favor is tourism. Last year 36 million tourists visited Southern Nevada, about 25 percent of whom came from Southern California, 5 percent from Northern California and 4 percent from Arizona. Those areas have six major league baseball teams or one-fifth of the entire 30-team league.

"It's difficult to say how many of those 36 million visitors would attend baseball games here," spokesman Rob Powers of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said. "It is reasonable to assume that if people are in town, they might want to catch a game with a team from their hometown. It's an intriguing question."

Goodman called the tourist base "the icing on the cake" that would help bring a major league team to the city.

But based on market size, Las Vegas has a better shot at landing a team from a professional sport other than baseball. The Las Vegas metropolitan area is larger than six National Football League markets (Charlotte; New Orleans; Green Bay, Wis.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Buffalo, N.Y.), three National Basketball Association communities (Charlotte, Salt Lake City and Memphis, Tenn.) as well as Columbus, Ohio; Raleigh, N.C.; and Nashville of the National Hockey League. Green Bay deserves an asterisk, however, because it has played games in Milwaukee.

It so happens that numerous football, basketball and hockey franchises have switched cities since baseball's latest defection 30 years ago.

Potential

A leading argument Goodman makes for bringing a professional sport to the vacant 61-acre parcel between Grand Central Parkway and Main Street is its potential to revitalize downtown. Representatives of business organizations in Phoenix, Cleveland and Denver told the Sun that their respective downtowns improved markedly because of new baseball stadiums.

"Anytime you can average 3 million fans a year coming downtown it will have a positive effect," Brian Kearney, executive director of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership, said of his city's Bank One Ballpark. "When any facility like that is new, people want to see it, so you have a tendency to have your highest crowds the first year before it levels off."

When Bank One Ballpark opened in 1998, retail, restaurant and hotel licenses in downtown Phoenix increased from 248 to 277, and taxable revenue rose nearly 41 percent. About 53 percent of the fans who attended Arizona Diamondbacks games last year spent money downtown before or after a game, according to a survey by the Downtown Phoenix Partnership.

Nearly all of those fans went to restaurants or bars, spending about $27 per person. One-third also purchased retail goods, averaging about $32 each.

"You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who says the ballpark is a negative," Kearney said. "Land values downtown have definitely increased. When the ballpark was first announced, it created renewed interest in downtown as a place to invest. This renewed sense of confidence has resulted in a wave of development activity."

Jacobs Field has done wonders for downtown Cleveland, according to Charlie Webb, vice president of economic development for the Greater Cleveland Growth Association. Webb said that after the home of the Cleveland Indians opened in 1994, downtown added 2,000 hotel rooms, and $65 million was spent to build four stations for light-rail transportation.

"Jacobs Field clearly reopened a part of downtown that was not people- friendly," Webb said.

He conceded, however, that the success of a downtown stadium often is tied to the fortunes of the team. Cleveland has been lucky because the Indians have become perennial playoff contenders.

"You can only get people to come to a newer facility a couple times if the quality of what you show them doesn't improve," Webb said.

Downtown Denver Partnership spokeswoman Claire Haas said Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies since 1995, also has revitalized a portion of that downtown, once riddled with shuttered warehouses.

The year the ballpark opened, sales-tax revenues downtown skyrocketed 86 percent. The number of area residences also has risen 400 percent to more than 1,300 units, and some are now selling for $1 million each, Haas said.

Come early, stay late

"We encourage people to come early and stay late," Haas said of Rockies fans. "The stadium was a catalyst that generated a lot of new restaurants and bars."

These testimonials are countered by the likes of the National Taxpayers Union in Alexandria, Va., which reported in February that American taxpayers spent $7.5 billion on stadiums over the past 10 years. That figure could double if 15 proposed facilities are built.

This includes not only stadium construction costs, but miscellaneous expenses such as new roads and utilities to serve the ballpark. Cities are also pressured into giving tax breaks to team owners.

"A number of economic projections pro-stadium people make fail to account for the downside of having to extract taxes from individuals," taxpayer union spokesman Pete Sepp said. "The money put into a stadium might have been put to more productive use, such as a growing business."

The assumption that downtown stadiums can revitalize the economies of surrounding businesses and neighborhoods is countered by the argument that those additional revenues are often shifted from other parts of the city. A fan who eats downtown before or after a game may have patronized a restaurant elsewhere had that ballpark not existed.

"It's very important to measure what, if any, net economic activity is really involved in these stadiums, and in many cases, it isn't anything," Sepp said. "A lot of cities get pressured by team owners and a small cadre of extreme fans into building a brand-spanking-new arena.

"If these team owners stand to make a profit, certainly they can attract other investors to build the stadium rather than rely on local government and taxpayers."

Relying on taxes

Goodman said he would rely on tax money generated by tourists, such as room taxes, slot route taxes and car rental taxes, rather than on revenue from local residents.

"I believe there are so many ways creatively to finance a ballpark or arena where you don't need a tax," Goodman said. "It could be done on a private basis."

The mayor also said it is possible to help generate at least $200 million for the city by selling the stadium naming rights, perhaps using Las Vegas in the title along with the business that purchases those rights.

But economist Robert Baade of Lake Forest College in Illinois, a critic of tax-supported stadiums, said their economic benefits are negligible when one considers that the businesses most likely to benefit are bars, sports- paraphernalia stores and parking lots.

"When you think about it, especially if you're thinking about hosting a professional football or baseball team, the number of days a year that the team is playing makes it a very seasonal industry," Baade said.

"Major league stadiums don't return the public's investment, and the reason is couched in common sense. Tourists have limited budgets. If they're spending more time and money on professional sporting events, they're spending less time and money for other things. The net effect of hosting a team is zero."

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