It's Time to Get Government Out of the SPORTS BUSINESS

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), March, 2000 by Raymond J. Keating

* The New York Mets have announced plans for a stadium with a retractable roof and a movable grass field. The ballpark's costs are estimated at about $500,000,000. It could be opened by 2002, with 45,000 seats--including 78 luxury suites and 5,000 club seats. Although the full financing scheme is yet to be announced, New York taxpayers could be on the hook for about $390,000,000.

* Meanwhile, crosstown rival George Steinbrenner has been pining for a new Yankee Stadium for several years. Even though the Yankees are flush with revenue (especially from television contracts), they maintain that they cannot compete with other teams that play in new ballparks, ignoring the fact that they won the World Series in 1996, 1998, and 1999. So, since at least 1995, Steinbrenner has been performing the baseball version of Hamlet, trying to decide whether he should keep his team in the Bronx (in a completely refurbished Yankee Stadium, which, incidentally, was completely rebuilt in 1974-75 after decaying since its 1923 opening) or move to a new facility on the west side of Manhattan. Moving the team to New Jersey is another proclaimed option, though the latter state has exhibited no interest in picking up the tab.

Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has made it clear that he is willing to do anything to make sure the Yankees remain somewhere within the Big Apple's borders. Giuliani even made sure that a November, 1998, referendum regarding public tax dollars for a new stadium on the West Side was removed from the ballot, so voters will have no direct voice in the Yankee Stadium question.

If the Yankees were to move to Manhattan, the price tag for a new ballpark is estimated at more than $1,000,000,000, while a refurbished Yankee Stadium in the Bronx is projected to cost $535,000,000. Given New York's ability to underestimate the true costs of such ventures, the actual costs of any of the proposed projects will undoubtedly rise considerably, with $1,500,000,000 for a West Side ballpark well within probability.

Stadium matters remain in flux in New York. In his state-of-the-city address on Jan. 14, 1999, Giuliani appeared to change course on the Yankees while generally growing more ambitious in terms of sports subsidies. His latest scheme calls for new ballparks for the Mets and the Yankees, new minor league stadiums in Brooklyn and Staten Island, a new domed football stadium on Manhattan's West Side--perhaps to lure the Jets back from the swamps of New Jersey--and a new Madison Square Garden for the NBA Knicks and NHL Rangers. One estimate places the cost of the entire venture at $5,000,000,000.

During the 20th century, more than $20,000,000,000 were spent on major league ballparks, stadiums, and arenas. This includes, based on a very conservative estimate, a minimum of $14,900,000,000 in government subsidies for the four major league sports--over $5,200,000,000 since 1989 alone. Before the Great Depression, no subsidies was the rule. Afterwards, no subsidies was clearly the exception.