THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606230204
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 64 lines
Sports editor:
Regarding the article in the Sunday April 21 edition related to taxpayers buying a stadium to attract a major league team to Virginia.
The article included, among others, the following three points:
1) The taxpayer cost for this effort is expected to be $200 million.
2) ``Baseball is like any other business.'' Jerrauld Jones (Norfolk)
3) The state debt is currently $2.5 billion.
I am a big baseball fan. I love to watch it in person and on television. I attend Little League games and minor league games. Baseball is a great game!
I am also a business person. I do not object to Mr. Jones' statement that baseball is like a business. His implication is that Virginia should try to attract a major league baseball team much as it would a corporation like Motorola.
With that in mind, let's try to decide whether attracting a business to Virginia is worth the expense to taxpayers.
The article that stated that Virginia could expect to earn $1.8 million per year from baseball players income taxes. It further stated that Virginia could expect to earn $5 million per year in sales tax from sales generated by businesses related to the new baseball team. My calculator indicates that this adds up to $6.8 million per year in tax income for the state.
The article states that Virginians are expected to contribute $200 million to build a stadium for the team. At the rate of $6.8 million in revenue per year, it will take 29 years for Virginia to break even on this project. Of course this ignores any possible player salary increase or inflation that might increase the stated annual revenue. It also ignores possible other uses of the stadium beyond baseball. But 29 years? You and I have seen instances in today's baseball world where teams ask for expensive renovations of stadiums that are approximately 20 years old. Reference the Kingdome. Virginians could be asked to raise additional revenue to rehabilitate a stadium even before the original $200 is paid back.
Another problem for the long term could be a teams' willingness to stay in Virginia. For instance, why are the Astros bailing out of Houston? What about NFL teams like the Cleveland Browns who asked for concession in Ohio and moved to Baltimore when none were given? Why did the Rams move to St. Louis? Why are the Oilers moving to Nashville? There are no guarantees that a major league team would have any long term allegiance to a locality.
The major league record indicates that teams have no loyalty to a state or a city. Let's keep this in mind. A team could abandon a state and a $200 million dollar stadium before the state coffers are paid back. This would probably mean a tax increase for citizens of a state where this occurred. We do not want this to happen in Virginia.
If, in fact, Virginians should view baseball as a business, then Virginians should expect a return on investment. It looks as though the prospect for Virginians is a lose, lose situation. The only positive prospect is that Virginians could claim their own team. Is ego worth the possible ``business'' loss and ensuing tax increase?
A state that is $2.5 billion in debt has no good reason to support a new ``business'' which will generate a loss to Virginia taxpayers. Virginians do not need to add major league baseball to the welfare rolls of the state.
Major league baseball is very expensive. If it is a business, then it should be expected to show a return on investment. Based on the simple calculations listed above, it does not.
Please vote ``no'' to public support of major league baseball in Virginia.
MARK HILLIARD
Virginia Beach by CNB