ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605060084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
Some say investors and boosters need to rally support soon if they really want to overcome many Virginians' opposition to the project.
The co-chairman of a General Assembly panel studying a proposed major-league baseball stadium in Northern Virginia warns that stadium boosters will strike out if they don't rally political support soon.
Del. Vince Callahan, R-Fairfax County, says he's told the group of investors who want to bring a major-league baseball team to Northern Virginia that there's strong opposition to state financing for a stadium.
"I tell them about political reality," Callahan says. "They think they're a bunch of hotshots and know everything, but they don't know about politics. I've told them they need to get their act together. All we're hearing from is the other side."
But baseball supporters say the initial opposition to public financing for a Northern Virginia stadium is to be expected - and won't last once citizens learn more about the project.
"The early opposition will be drowned out by a groundswell of support in Northern Virginia and throughout Virginia," predicts Michael Scanlon, executive director for the Virginia Baseball Club, the Springfield-based group of 35 investors that hopes to buy the Houston Astros and move the team to the Washington suburbs.
However, the leader of an independent "fans" group faults Virginia's political leaders for not doing more to make the case for a publicly financed stadium.
"No point person has taken the lead on this," says John Pinkman, head of the Alexandria-based Virginians for Baseball. "The governor's position on this is extremely different from the governor of Maryland" - who recently arm-twisted that state's legislature into paying $258 million for, not one, but two new stadiums to house football's Washington Redskins and the new Baltimore Ravens (formerly the Cleveland Browns).
In Maryland, though, the stadium pitch was laden with emotion left over from Baltimore's loss of the Colts football team to Indianapolis in 1984.
A spokeswoman for Gov. George Allen says the governor isn't going to be swayed by sentiment. "The governor's position is if it makes good economic sense for the region and the state, that should be the decision, that it should not be based on the emotion," Julie Overy says. "He does not want to see Virginia taxpayers get stuck with a deal like the Cleveland Browns deal."
Nevertheless, Allen has been open to the idea of some kind of state financing - and even the most vocal legislative critic has conceded state involvement may be inevitable. "I think we will end up with state involvement in this," Del. Alan Diamonstein, D-Newport News, said after last month's initial public hearing on the matter.
Callahan - who co-chairs a legislative committee that faces a July 1 deadline to come up with a proposal for paying for a baseball stadium - says there's a 50-50 chance the state will approve a financing scheme.
Just what that scheme might be is far from certain - although it probably will involve taxes levied only in Northern Virginia.
Downstate legislators made it clear last month they weren't inclined to ask taxpayers across the state to finance a stadium in Northern Virginia.
However, the most talked-about option - a regional sales tax in Northern Virginia - doesn't appear to be faring well. "The sales tax idea just isn't flying," Callahan says. "Governor Allen has said he'd veto it, even if there was a referendum."
Instead, legislators are weighing a variety of other options - such as a special admissions tax on stadium-goers and/or raising taxes on rental cars and hotels in Northern Virginia.
One of the most creative ideas, Callahan says, would involve dedicating the income tax the state collected from the baseball team's employees toward the stadium. That way, he says, every time a player got a big new contract, the salary increase would generate more income taxes to help pay off the stadium.
Legislators may hear other options Tuesday when the subcommittee holds its second public hearing - this one in Herndon.
"Financially, it's doable," Callahan says, for the state to come up with the $17 million a year necessary to pay off the bonds for constructing a $250 million stadium.
Instead, he says the biggest problem that stadium supporters face are misconceptions about what the project would involve. Those misconceptions are apparent in some of the things that citizens in Western Virginia have had to say lately about the stadium proposal.
Here are four of the arguments being voiced against a state-financed stadium, and what stadium supporters say in response:
``Let the investors foot the bill. They're the ones who'll get rich from it anyway.''
- Kelly Logwood, Troutville
Many Virginians think the team owners should pay for their own stadium. The problem with that, supporters say, is that it ignores the economic reality of baseball - virtually all stadiums built today involve some kind of public financing. "There hasn't been a privately built [baseball] stadium in this country for years," Callahan says. The last one was Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in the 1950s.
Scanlon points out that the investors he's representing are prepared to pay $150 million to buy a team, to shell out another $9 million to fix up Washington's RFK Stadium to play there for two years until a Virginia stadium is built - and they expect to lose $30 million a year while there.
They're also prepared to make a "substantial" contribution to the construction costs and expect to pick up the estimated $7 million-a-year tab in operating costs. "We're willing to meet the state halfway," he says.
``Let the people with the most to gain from it pay for it. Which is who? It will be the people who own the stadium.''
- Gary Sturrock, Roanoke
Actually, the stadium would be owned by a state authority, appointed by the governor. As for who would benefit the most from the stadium, that depends on one's point of view. Callahan says many opponents he talks with believe this is a project for "the wealthy." He contends it's really for the middle class.
"If there's a middle-class sport, it's baseball," he says. "The perception is this is fat cats sitting in skyboxes, but baseball is probably the one middle-class spectator sport where the whole family goes."
``Why not give them RFK Stadium? Doesn't that sound more feasible?''
- Howard Board, Roanoke
Stadium supporters cite three reasons why it's not feasible to make RFK Stadium a permanent home.
The 35-year-old stadium in Washington ``is a stadium on its last legs,'' Scanlon says. It also has no luxury boxes, an economic necessity in sports today, he says. Those are two reasons why football's Washington Redskins are leaving for a new stadium in suburban Maryland.
Secondly, major-league baseball frowns on a team in Washington, believing it would cut into the attendance at the Baltimore Orioles games. That's why the Virginia Baseball Club has pitched not the Washington market, but the Northern Virginia market across the Potomac - which is one of the main arguments supporters use for state financing.
A major-league baseball team with ``Virginia'' in its name would be a year-round advertisement for the state, supporters contend. "If Virginia wants to be effective in the world market, we need to do something to separate ourselves from Washington and not just be a bedroom community," Pinkman says. "Washington is financially broke and their mayor's in rehab. That's why the business community [in Northern Virginia] favors this. It's a known fact - this will put Virginia on the big-league map."
``I am quite sure they can figure a way to accomplish their goals without money from those of us in areas who will probably never be able to attend a game.''
- James C. Martin, Vinton
Maybe so. But the prospective owners cite studies that say a Northern Virginia team would draw fans from throughout Virginia - and even into West Virginia, North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Scanlon says those studies project 20 percent of the fans on weekends would come from more than 100 miles away.
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