Fan-Ownership: A Novel Concept

by Jeremiah Tittle

If the idea of ownership is relative, today’s sports franchise owners feel they owe fans absolutely nothing, and fans are anything but family. These days, the owner-fan relationship is more like Ike to Tina than it is father to son or even that of distant cousins.

As sportswriter and SFC board member Dave Zirin has repeated on the Bad Sports book tour, “we’ve seen an economic model in which there is the socialization of debt and the privatization of profit.’ That means owners are more than happy to exploit taxpayers financially building subsidized stadiums and charging exhorbitant fees for parking and concessions, but they don’t want any input on how to run the team and bank every dime.

It’s a scam and it needs to stop.

Fan ownership is alive and well in Green Bay here in the states. Overseas, soccer clubs Barcelona in Spain, Benfica in Portugal, and if one politician is successful, Liverpool will wrest power from their despised owners in the UK. Walton MP Steve Rotheram tells the Liverpool Echo, “Those who are most under-represented – the fans – should have the most say.”

Couldn’t have said better myself.

This is the basis for SFC’s existence. Sports Fans Coalition formed to give fans a voice, a seat at the table when important decisions are made. Without SFC, what method do fans have to organize, mobilize, and affect change in this extremely dysfunctional system in which owners take, take, take leaving fans no money and no recourse.

The question of fan ownership is a complicated one, and it would take an extremely organized and passionate fanbase combined with political support to make this dream a reality. Duplicating the success of a team like the Green Bay Packers where profits are reinvested into community schools and charities rather than stuffing a greedy owner’s coffers is idealistic, but we’d like to believe it is an attainable long-term goal.

In the meantime SFC, with your support, seeks accountability from the leagues, owners, and politicians. If even one dime of public money goes to build or refurbish a stadium, the fans deserve affordable seating and media access to the games. Blackouts and PSL’s be damned.

Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org. Reach him at Jeremiah@SportsFansCoalition.org. Apply for a position with the SFC Sportswriter Fellowship here.

Vikings’ Stadium Bill Versus The People of Minnesota

by Jeremiah Tittle

It is simply amazing what some local and state representatives will try to shove down tax-payers’ throats. In Minnesota, thanks to the opposition, the Vikings-approved new stadium bill has been met with defeat after defeat.

Four Minnesota State legislators including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Loren Solberg, DFL-Grand Rapids, and Senate Tax Committee Chairman Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, introduced a bill Wednesday which would provide the Vikings with roughly two-thirds of the $791 million needed to build a new stadium, and keep the team – with or without Brett Favre – within the precincts of the twin-cities.

After the bill was barely shot down with a 10-9 vote in the Minnesota House State and Local Government Operations Reform, Technology and Elections committee, the Senate State and Local Government Committee approved the bill under the all important condition that funding not be pillaged from Minneapolis City taxes nor through a state lottery game as was proposed.

Personal Seat Licenses could be the last gasp effort for the Wilf family to get a new sandbox to play in (without actually having to pay for it), but Neil deMause, author of Field of Schemes, is not optimistic that this method will work. Furthermore, since the Vikings have declined to renew their lease on the Metrodome beyond next season, the future of the team in Minneapolis is surely uncertain.

So be it. Keep up the fight, Minnesota! Don’t let the Vikings hold you over a barrel demanding your hard-earned tax dollars.

Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org.

It’s no different than the threats which emerge from NFL, NHL, or NBA franchises. Whether it’s a mammoth billion dollar-stadium in Dallas, the big apple, or the relatively small spring training facility in Mesa, Arizona that the Cubs populate in March, when teams leverage our tax dollars for their stadiums it is simply unfair to sports fans.

In the case of the $84 million Cactus League stadium build for the Chicago Cubs faithful (set to open in 2013), the ‘threat’ by the team to bolt for Florida was enough to convince local lawmakers to hike up the ticket taxes to pay for them to stay. Despite avoiding the citrus of the Grapefruit League, Cubs fans have a sour taste in their mouths over this increase as spring training is supposed to provide an affordable outlet for die-hards to preview the current and future stars of their baseball club in action.

They’re not the only ones upset by the lawmakers’ decision.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox, LA Dodgers, Oakland A’s, and Texas Rangers have all expressed their discontent over the proposed Cactus League ticket tax that would be shared across the board. Rightfully so. If the goal was to keep the Cubs in Arizona each spring, why should all clubs, and all baseball fans be required to absorb one team’s ransom?

In the lawmakers’ decision, the Cubs preferred method of public payment for the new stadium, a car rental tax, was dropped. Now, their cross-town rivals, the White Sox, will have to live with the fact that every time they set foot in Camelback Ranch (their shared facility with the Dodgers), they’ll be supporting the dreaded Cubs’ shiny new stadium in Mesa.

Here are some more stats of stadium financing in AZ from the Phoenix Biz Journal:

Stadium: Proposed Cubs stadium

• Site: Mesa
• Opened: 2013*
• Tenants: Chicago Cubs
• Cost: $84 M

• Major financing: Proposed ticket fees on all Cactus League games, proposed rental car tax increases, Mesa bonds

Stadium: Camelback Ranch

• Site: Glendale
• Opened: 2009
• Tenants: Chicago White Sox, LA Dodgers
• Cost: $100 M
• Major financing: $60 M from Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority, Glendale bonds

Stadium: Goodyear Stadium

• Site: Glendale
• Opened: 2009
• Tenants: Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds
• Cost: $108 M
• Major financing: $55 M from AZSTA, Goodyear bonds

Stadium: Planned Arizona Diamondbacks/Colorado Rockies stadium

• Site: Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
• Opened: 2011*
• Tenants: Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies
• Cost: $100 M
• $23 M stimulus-backed loan, Tribal money

Stadium: Chase Field

• Site: Phoenix
• Opened: 1998
• Tenants: Diamondbacks
• Cost: $364 M
• Major financing: Quarter-cent Maricopa County sales tax increase, Diamondbacks paid extra construction expenses

Stadium: University of Phoenix Stadium

• Site: Glendale
• Opened: 2006
• Tenants: Arizona Cardinals
• Cost: $471 M
• Major financing: $311 M from AZSTA, Prop. 302 increases to rental car and hotel taxes, $145 M from Cardinals, $5 M from Fiesta Bowl, $10 M from city of Glendale

Stadium: Jobing.com Arena

• Site: Glendale
• Opened: 2003
• Tenants: Phoenix Coyotes
• Cost: $180 M
• Major financing: Glendale bonds and financing

Stadium: US Airways Center

• Site: Phoenix
• Opened: 1992
• Tenants: Phoenix Suns
• Cost: $90 M
• Major financing: Phoenix bonds and loans

It appears to be an exciting matchup of two equally potent teams on offense led by prolific quarterbacks that even Brett Favre would acknowledge are the best in the game and deserving to take home the Vince Lombardi trophy to open this new decade.

While the excitement of the big game builds, it’s important to remember that we are heading into an upcapped year and a lockout in 2011 is imminent. Not trying to be ‘Debbie Downer’, but it’s true.  From a fans perspective, the owners – who have up until now done their best impression of G. Gordon Liddy at the Watergate hearings – better extend the olive branch to players to get this deal done.

Roger Goodell was seen pleading with both sides for the sake of the game as he delivered his State of the League address to media on Friday. To clarify, Goodell has a vested interest here as his legacy will take a major hit if he is not successful in this plea, and don’t forget SmartMoney’s ‘Thing 10′ in its article ’10 Things the NFL Won’t Tell You’:

“It’s just a business to us.”

In other sports business news, New York sports fans are well aware of the third new stadium construction project – following the Yankees and Mets new buildings – subsidized with taxpayer funds housing the Giants and Jets.  To signal the end of an era, demo crews have begun their work on the old venue in earnest.

Remember Cincinnati’s Nasty Tax Obligations, well the Bengals are offering to let Hamilton County off the hook with some concessions, paying 1-3 million a year in rent and upkeep of Paul Brown Stadium while seeking to have the county offers up proceeds from other events and a little political support in convincing  the city of Cincinnati to arrange a similar deal with the team. Stay tuned to SFC for updates.

Coming full circle, Miami local leaders are criticizing Dolphins owner Stephen Ross for seeking tax money to put a roof on Sun Life Stadium, home of tonight’s Super Bowl. And rightfully so. The roof would help Miami get another Super Bowl bid, but is it worth it?

The best quote to sum up a definitive answer to this quandry comes from Victor Matheson, a sports economist at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass, who co-wrote a 2004 paper on the big game’s economic impact:

“You could host a Super Bowl every year for the next 20 and be lucky to recoup your costs.”

Enough said.

Here is SFC board member Dave Zirin’s most recent article in The Nation focusing on the Viking’s future home, the State of Minnesota, and tax payer dollars once again going down the toilet to keep a team from bolting a la the Baltimore Colts.

Silver Lining for Vikings Fans (Politically) by Dave Zirin

This is a day to empathize with the agony amongst the long-suffering fans of the Minnesota Vikings. With a trip to the Super Bowl in their buttery grasp, they fumbled it all away. In a game they largely dominated from start-to-finish, the Vikes lost in overtime to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game, 31-28. Miscues, interceptions, and some questionable calls will have Vikings Nation asking “what if” for the next nine months.

Yes, there is misery in Minnesota. But there is also a silver lining, and I’m not talking about the joy in Green Bay at the spectacular fall of Minnesota QB Brett Favre. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf was locked and loaded to arrive at the Minnesota State Legislature on February 4 – three days before the Super Bowl – to press for a new $1 billion stadium with $700 million to be paid by the taxpayers. The Vikings, like many teams, is holding up the specter of moving the franchise to Los Angeles if they don’t get a nine-figure welfare check. With the state’s phony populist absentee governor Tim “Glass Jaw” Pawlenty saying little more than, “We have to keep the Vikings no matter what,”
Wilf was ready to roll the state’s taxpayers. But now that the team has failed to reach the Big Game, the wind is out of Wilf’s sails and Zygi is no longer coated with stardust. This isn’t to say that Wilf won’t emerge triumphant, but without the team in the Super Bowl, it’s much more apparent that he will have a fight on his hands.

As Minnesota resident and dogged stadium opponent Willard Shapira wrote, “Most communities around the U.S. have caved in to such outrageous demands but socially concerned Minnesotans are fighting the Vikings tooth and nail. Others around the U.S. battling big-money and establishment power politics would take heart from a public victory over the Vikings and their gang of arrogant, plutocratic conspirators in business, politics and the media.”

Remember that Minnesotans repeatedly rejected the Twins billionaire owner Carl Pohlad’s efforts to get a new baseball stadium on the public dime. Despite their votes, Pawlenty rammed the $500 million facility through the legislature and it opens for business this spring. Now the owner called “the Big Bad Wilf” wants his piece of the public pie, recession be damned. The Vikings failure to make the Super Bowl makes his effort far more perilous.

On the flip side, and ever so ironically, New Orleans first trip to the Super Bowl makes it a near impossibility for the Saints owners, the Benson family, to fulfill their pre-Katrina dreams of moving their franchise to the City of Angels. If they made that move, I’m convinced that the Crescent City would implode with grief. Now, as a Super Bowl team, that move becomes a political impossibility.

Therefore in one tense contest to see who would ascend to the Super Bowl, two sets of owners saw their most treasured dreams to burn tax payers and break hearts go up in smoke. That’s something all fans should cheer. Even in Minnesota.