I recognize the tremendous economic impact a successful professional sports team can have on a community. The economic benefit extends far beyond the team's ownership group to include the venue's employees, local restaurants and bars, parking garages and mass transit entities. While my rant focuses on Milwaukee's current arena battle; no city with a major or minor league sports franchise is exempt from the problem.
The Milwaukee media has been bombarding us for years about the need to replace the "aging" BMO Harris Bradley Center; a multi-sport venue in downtown Milwaukee. The facility is over 25 years old and is - or so we've been told - so antiquated and deficient that it's a hindrance, rather than a benefit, to the community. They have threatened that the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks will leave Milwaukee if we don't come up with a new arena.
Lest I get too far off course, I do want to point out that these are the same Milwaukee Bucks that finished last in the NBA with a whopping 15-67 record. The same Milwaukee Bucks who, despite what the "announced attendance" figures would lead one to believe, haven't drawn decent crowds for years. Yes, the same Milwaukee Bucks that just sold last week for a little over half a billion dollars.
Yes, you saw that right - the worst team in the league sold for HALF A BILLION DOLLARS!!! That's $500,000,000-plus!!! (Kind of makes you wonder what a "real" team would be worth, doesn't it?)
No sooner had the sale been announced than the media started anew on their propaganda blitz that we (the taxpayers) simply MUST get behind the effort to build a new arena or risk losing this "valuable community asset" to some other city.
Really? (Now I freely admit that I despise basketball. I really don't care if Milwaukee has a basketball team or not. However, I am consistent in that my opposition to my tax money being used to make team owners even richer is not limited to those sports I despise.)
The voters in southeast Wisconsin bought into all of the fear mongering years ago when the five county region enacted a sales tax to pay for a new stadium for the Milwaukee Brewers. This "temporary" sales tax to build a new stadium started in 1996. Current projections have it ending as late as 2020. Unfortunately, the tax revenues also go toward some improvements, etc. which, in essence, means that it could go on forever. The crowd behind building a new arena for the Bucks tout the continuation of the tax as one means to pay for that, too.
Anyone who can pay half a billion dollars for a sports franchise can build their own arena as far as I'm concerned.
"But they'll leave Milwaukee," the Chicken Littles cry out.
I say, "Then let 'em go!"
"But the city needs a great venue for sports and concerts," they say.
"Then let the people who own and promote those events pay for the venue," is my reply.
"But the private sector needs a vibrant sports scene and downtown in order to thrive," they blather on.
Well, if a new arena is that important to the private sector, then let the private sector pony up the money. They will see a huge return on their investment if the venue is even half as successful as they claim it will be.
We need to be on our guard, though. Some cities have used what I believe to be deceptive tactics to build new sports arenas "without tax money."
Reallly?
Look at San Antonio, they say.
San Antonio redirected parking revenues to pay for a new arena. They made the claim that the parking revenues from people going to the games paid for the new arena and it was not put onto the citizens as a whole.
Wrong!!!
I suppose you can pull the wool over people's eyes with a story like that if they're bad at math or don't understand how government works.
The citizens still have to pick up the costs of those services the parking revenues used to pay for. So, while the local politicians can claim that they didn't make the public pay for the new stadium - that's exactly what they did; they just disguised it in such a way that many of their (dare I say, less informed) constituents - who may have vehemently opposed public money for a new sports venue - are paying the tab without even realizing it.
Unfortunately, this cycle will not stop as long as the politicians keep preying upon the public's unfounded fears. The public - whether in southeast Wisconsin now or any of the dozens of other regions faced with the same issues - must stand up once and for all and declare that we will no longer be held hostage by ridiculously wealthy sports franchises, no matter how important they may be to the community.
I can hardly afford to attend more than one or two baseball games per year. Why should I be forced to pay for a stadium to showcase men making more in one year than I will make in my lifetime just for playing a game; or to stroke the egos of the men and women who pay hundreds of millions of dollars to join the elite club of major sports team owners?
Quite simply - I shouldn't be forced to pay for it.
Let them pay for it themselves.
I'll get off of my soapbox now...
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