ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605280046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
Lawmakers trying to finance a major league baseball stadium in Northern Virginia are looking to one of the state's trusty moneymakers for help: the state lottery.
If a deal can be struck this summer to lure the Houston Astros to Virginia - questionable, considering recent setbacks to the plan - some new lottery games will be needed to finance it, state legislators say.
In financial terms, the plan could work. Virginia has enough scratch-off games already, but a new daily game might raise the extra money that stadium supporters need, lottery officials say.
In practical terms, however, lawmakers face a tougher sell - both to the governor, who must approve the deal, and to Virginia taxpayers, who seem to like roads and schools more than baseball.
If a stadium can be financed without draining other state services, a plan could soon come together. But if not, Virginia's major league hopes may not amount to more than a pipe dream.
``I think that's the consensus of the committee,'' said Del. Vince Callahan, co-chairman of the General Assembly panel studying stadium financing.
``It's going to be user taxes and the lottery if this thing is going to work.''
The money issue could be moot anyway, considering the ongoing scrimmage over finding a site for the proposed stadium. Fairfax County supervisors, hit with a torrent of public opposition, withdrew their potential sites in Springfield last week, eliminating two of the most promising prospects. Arlington County officials are still debating a site near the 14th Street Bridge, but federal aviation officials think it is too close to National Airport.
The only other site officially available is in Stafford County, which might be too far from the core of the Washington market to be realistic. And if Stafford County is the only site offered, state officials say they'll discontinue their search altogether.
Members of the investment group that wants to buy a major league baseball team for Virginia say there is still hope. Fairfax officials are considering some other sites, and Arlington and Loudoun counties could still make acceptable offers.
``All I know is, last night the Houston Astros drew 14,000 people,'' Mike Scanlon, spokesman for the investment group led by communications executive William Collins, said last week. ``I'm telling you, this is our chance. This is the year to make it happen.''
Scanlon's group, called the Virginia Baseball Club, still hopes to purchase the Astros this summer and play in Washington's RFK stadium next season. The team would move to Virginia when a new stadium is built.
So state officials are plodding on. And as they scurry to meet a July 1 deadline for a proposed stadium financing plan, one point is clear: The government won't build a stadium in Northern Virginia with tax money collected statewide. ``A family should not pay more for groceries or clothing in order to subsidize the construction of a stadium,'' Gov. George Allen said in a letter to lawmakers. Some other source of money will have to be found, he said.
Thus the new lottery proposals. Several states have used gambling money to gather the multimillions needed to build sports arenas and stadiums.
In Washington state, a sports lottery for the Seattle Mariners has been wildly successful. New scratch-off games launched in February are on track to raise the $90 million needed to finance a new stadium over the next 20 years.
But Washington has a pennant-winning team in the Seattle Mariners, and all the civic rah-rahing that goes with it. Virginia can't offer so much as the smell of the hot dogs, much less World Series hopes.
In Maryland, where lottery games are still paying for the Orioles' home at Camden Yards and will build a new field for the NFL Ravens, sports lotteries haven't been as successful. The Maryland lottery will have no trouble raising the $23 million the stadiums need this year, but that will be money that could have financed other state services.
Virginia officials say they won't let that happen. If lottery money is used for a stadium, it must be new money that the lottery wouldn't have raised anyway.
That could create problems. Without the legislature's promise to pay back the stadium debt, the borrowing rates could rise or the stadium might not find any lenders at all. The private investment group probably lacks the wherewithal to borrow so much money at a low rate. Latching onto the state's rock-solid credit rating might be their only hope.
Virginia's $250 million project will need cash from other sources. Ticket and concession taxes would go straight into the stadium, for instance. And the Virginia Baseball Club investors would contribute as much as $100 million.
But that leaves as much as $7 million a year that General Assembly officials must find - if not from the lottery then from some other source - ideally before their next meeting June 4.
``I think we have a shot,'' said Callahan. ``How good of a shot, it's hard to tell. It's not an easy task.''
Said Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, the other committee co-chairman: ``It's going to take some awfully creative people to pull this off.''
LENGTH: Medium: 96 linesby CNB