THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 8, 1996 TAG: 9607080074
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FAIRFAX LENGTH: 37 lines
The latest financing proposal for a $300 million baseball stadium in Northern Virginia is a better deal for the state's taxpayers than several other recent stadium accords, analysts said.
Four financial analysts who studied the financing package for The Washington Post said the proposal beats stadium agreements reached with team owners in Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago and Denver over the past several years.
But two of the analysts said Virginia taxpayers did not do as well as they could have, pointing to stadium deals that Detroit, Phoenix and San Francisco have landed more recently.
``I am not sure Virginia taxpayers are getting as much out of this as they should,'' said William Sims, a Phoenix lawyer who helped negotiate a stadium package in his hometown. ``It is not as attractive as it could be.''
The two other analysts called the arrangement respectable and said they doubted that Virginia officials could have forced team owners to pay a larger share of stadium costs.
``That is a relatively good deal for the taxpayer,'' said Mitchell H. Ziets, senior managing consultant at Public Financial Management Inc., a Philadelphia firm that helps structure stadium deals.
The goal for any state or local government planning to build a stadium is to negotiate a deal that gets the largest up-front contribution and biggest long-term payments from the team while leaving the owners with enough money to pay the competitive salaries necessary for a successful franchise.
The package will need to be adopted by the full legislature during the 1997 session. It will be presented to the legislature only if the investor group led by telecommunications executive William L. Collins III is successful in its effort to buy a franchise, most likely the Houston Astros. by CNB