ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 6, 1996 TAG: 9606060091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ANNANDALE
SOURCE: Associated Press
Investors who want to bring a Major League Baseball team to Northern Virginia have offered to pay one-third of the stadium's $300 million building costs, but state lawmakers said that isn't enough.
The meeting on financing was the first joint session of the three major players in the stadium effort: the Alexandria-based Virginia Baseball Club, the stadium authority and the 13-member legislative panel drafting a financing plan.
William L. Collins III, chairman of Virginia Baseball Club, told legislators that the club can't pay much more than it offered Tuesday and still pay the salaries it needs to field a good team. ``The level we are at right now is about $2 million to $3 million more than we had forecast in our budgets,'' he said.
The authority estimates the total cost of building the stadium at $250 million to $300 million, but is basing its financial projections on the higher figure, which it predicts would take $27 million a year to repay.
The club offered to pay $9 million - about a third of the yearly payment - from stadium revenue.
The would-be team owners also offered to pay the $7 million cost of running the stadium, in return for being allowed to keep nearly all money generated by the complex, including ticket sales, revenue from parking, food and souvenir sales, and money from companies paying for the rights to name the stadium or sell products there.
Under the club's proposal, the state would pay the remaining $18 million a year in debt costs by raising $14 million from new lottery games and $4 million from state sales taxes on purchases at the stadium and from income taxes paid by team players and staff.
``I think we can do better than that,'' said Del. Vince Callahan, R-Fairfax County, co-chairman of the legislative panel. ``For the general public to accept it, they are going to demand more money be put in from the private sector.''
He and Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, the other co-chairman, said they would support using lottery revenue on one condition: that the team guarantee that overall state lottery revenues do not decline as a result of creating new baseball lottery games. If the baseball-related games didn't raise the projected $14 million a year, or if they cut into revenue from other lottery games, the club would reimburse the state.
The legislative committee, which has until July 1 to settle on a financing package, already has rejected a long list of other financing options, including a regional sales tax, a cigarette tax and a gas tax, leaving little but the lottery to close the gap.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB