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[RBH]

City of Arlington officials have touted a “50-50” private-public partnership to build a proposed $1 billion retractable roof stadium for the Texas Rangers.

A WFAA-TV investigation, however, has found taxpayers may instead pick up to 80 percent of the tab, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars more than initially promised by city leaders.

Last month, the Arlington City Council unanimously approved a “Master Agreement” to ask voters to extend sales, car rental, and hotel occupancy taxes that have been used to build AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

AT&T Stadium is expected to be paid off early, Arlington officials say, allowing the tax revenues to be extended to build a proposed climate-controlled baseball stadium to replace the 22-year-old Globe Life Park. City officials have pledged that the public would pay no more than half the cost of the proposed baseball stadium.

“The deal is 50-50," Mayor Jeff Williams said. "The city would put in $500 million dollars."

But an analysis by WFAA-TV reveals that besides extending a half-cent sales tax, and levying hotel and car rental taxes, the approved agreement also includes millions of dollars of additional tax revenues that could flow to the Rangers.

Tucked in the agreement is a clause called the "admissions and parking tax" that allows for a 10 percent surcharge on event tickets and up to $3 additional surcharge on parking. State law allows cities to collect and use the taxes to build their stadiums. Arlington’s agreement, however, allows the Rangers to use the admissions and parking tax revenues to help pay their half of the construction costs.

"If it really is a tax and could be used by the municipality, then in essence it's just transferring revenue from the public sector to the private sector,” said Rick Eckstein, a Villanova University professor who studies sports stadium economics.

"There's a sleight of hand here. There's verbal gymnastics going on,” Eckstein added. “It's relatively unprecedented in terms of stadiums I've studied over the last 20 years.”

Eckstein said the only time he recalls a similar deal was Arlington’s agreement with Dallas Cowboy’s owner Jerry Jones to build AT&T Stadium.

Records obtained by WFAA-TV show Jones and the Cowboys have scooped up an extra $16.5 million annually from parking and admissions taxes. That’s a total of $116 million extra the past seven years.

If collected for the 30-year life of the stadium, that’s $500 million dollars.

Allowing the Rangers to collect the same tax could mean an additional $10 million in revenues, or $300 million in revenues over 30 years to pay of the Rangers’ share of stadium construction costs.

“It is one of the worst public projects anyone could imagine,” said Robert Baade, an economist at Lake Forest College in Illinois.

“This is all about not physical obsolescence. It’s really about economic obsolescence,” said Baade, who studies the economic impact of sports stadiums. “So who derives the benefits from building this new stadium? And it comes as no surprise to anyone: the primary beneficiaries are owners and players… It means an increased value for the franchise. It means more money for the owners and players.”

Arlington resident Jim Runzheimer said he was outraged when told about the clause to pass admissions and parking tax revenues to a sports franchise to help pay off a team’s private debt.

"That's phenomenal; that's mind boggling,” Runzheimer said.

"This is a total giveaway by the taxpayer to a private business that does not need any taxpayer assistance,” said Runzheimer, who has lobbied against Arlington’s plans to raise taxes for sports stadium construction.

News 8 asked Mayor Williams about the additional tax revenues that would allow the Rangers to collect potentially hundreds of millions of dollars that could have gone to the city.

"No, we are not giving away anything to the Rangers," Williams said. "We are investing with the Rangers."

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/inve...deal-among-the-worst-in-the-country/251473853

 

[Raxus]

Arlington should have watched Last Week Tonight's bit on Stadiums.

Still pretty disgusting they screw the little guys this badly.

 

[spookyfish]

“It is one of the worst public projects anyone could imagine,” said Robert Baade, an economist at Lake Forest College in Illinois.

Cobb County and its public parks -- not of the baseball variety -- understands.

COBB: "SPLOST money? We don't have to use that for what we promised, now do we??"

 

[GK86]

Thanks for the stadium, suckers.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Stadiums are the worst.

 

[JustAnotherMike]

Well it's good to know my tax dollars are being horrible spent.

Just reading up on the new proposal and it doesn't sound too appealing. They are going for the multi-use approach, but with Jerry's world right down the street I wonder how attractive that would be. I guess it depends on the event.

Here's an article detailing their some of their plans
http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/tex...angers-ballpark-including-will-much-will-cost

 

[SwiftDeath]

That's disappointing but stadium projects for major sports teams are hard to stop/control as a taxpayer.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

Sports fans would sacrifice children for new stadiums. They have proven time and again that they don't care about the cronyism, the lying, the budget overruns. They are so terrified that owners will carry out their threats of moving the team that they'll overlook everything else about what has been a consistently bad deal for cities, citizens, businesses and public services.

It's a downer, man.

 

[BlastProcessing]

Thank goodness for quality journalism.

 

[Iorv3th]

That stadium isn't even old. I remember when they built it. They have perfect location for the current one too with AT&T Stadium right beside it. Certainly does not need to be replaced.

Could you imagine they replaced Wrigley Field or Fenway every 25 years?

I remember listening about this on the Russ Martin show and they all where saying how stupid it was to build a new stadium.

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

Owners are the single worst thing about sports.

 

[ObiDin]

That stadium isn't even old. I remember when they built it. They have perfect location for the current one too with AT&T Stadium right beside it. Certainly does not need to be replaced.

Could you imagine they replaced Wrigley Field or Fenway every 25 years?

I remember listening about this on the Russ Martin show and they all where saying how stupid it was to build a new stadium.

As a fan who has been to numerous games in Arlington in August over the years, yes it does need to be replaced. It's too damn hot in Texas in August to be sitting outside watching baseball.

Then again, it's not my tax dollars as I live in Fort Worth.

 

[winjet81]

Owners are the single worst thing about sports.

Why blame the owners? They're just trying to maximize profits.

100% of the blame should go to municipal officials who actually agree to these deals.

 

[Shiv47]

"No, we are not giving away anything to the Rangers," Williams said. "We are investing with the Rangers."

 

[BlastProcessing]

As a fan who has been to numerous games in Arlington in August over the years, yes it does need to be replaced. It's too damn hot in Texas in August to be sitting outside watching baseball.

Then again, it's not my tax dollars as I live in Fort Worth.

Just another one of GW Bush's mistakes.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

They need a new stadium. They need to get out of the Texas heat.

If they really do pass money on to the Rangers, that will suck. Maybe shedding light on it beforehand will prevent that. But this stadium is needed. I will gladly go out to multiple games a season when it opens. Right now though, no. Too fucking hot.

 

[Iorv3th]

As a fan who has been to numerous games in Arlington in August over the years, yes it does need to be replaced. It's too damn hot in Texas in August to be sitting outside watching baseball.

Then again, it's not my tax dollars as I live in Fort Worth.

There no way they could renovate the current stadium? I don't ever go to afternoon games, usually games in the evening.

 

[platocplx]

Billionare owners, makes common man pay for their shit.

 

[Aztechnology]

I have friends that insist that keeping stadiums up to date and sports teams well funded is some kind of civic duty. It frustrates me to no end because they don't even bother to research the actual returns to the majority of taxpayers when talking about how it's some kind of magic economic boon. It's hard to combat those mental gymnastics though when a metric shiton of sports fans are out there any can't imagine a world where everyone doesn't want to pay to support their hobbies.

 

[BlastProcessing]

There no way they could renovate the current stadium? I don't ever go to afternoon games, usually games in the evening.

The new ownership commissioned a study a few years back. Because of the way the stadium is built, it would cost around $500 million to retrofit a roof and air conditioning.

 

[ObiDin]

There no way they could renovate the current stadium? I don't ever go to afternoon games, usually games in the evening.

Have you ever gone to evening games in August or September where it doesn't get below 100 degrees until midnight?

I am a lifelong Rangers fan, but it sucks going in the peak heat of the summer.

As for renovation, it would involve taking an open air stadium and retrofitting a roof and exterior walls(as the existing walls are open to allow air flow) around and above the existing stadium. Two words come to mind, cost prohibitive.

 

[FriedConsole]

Thanks for the stadium, suckers.

Yep. As a Dallas area resident sports fan I appreciate Arlington residents continuously paying for new sport stadiums to the complete detriment to their infrastructure. I am glad you fixed the roads to the sports stadiums because it doesn't matter to me that the rest of the roads are barely drive-able. Some sort of mass transport system would have been nice to get to the stadiums instead of having to park at a PetSmart parking lot and walk 2 miles in 100 degrees. I am sure you will get all the money back eventually for pouring in money into sport stadiums since 1965. Just another 50 years and all the economic development will kick in and you might move up to the 2nd worst suburb in the DFW area.