Sports Teams vs. Cities: Stadium Tenants Put Landlords to the Test

CINCINNATI â€”  The Irwindale-Raider deal, under which the Los Angeles Raiders are being given $115 million in financing to move to Irwindale and build a stadium there, may seem extraordinary to many Southern Californians.

But Irwindale is only one example of the lucrative offers being solicited or made these days to retain or obtain such teams, according to stadium executives and municipal officials from all over the country who gathered here for a conference Monday and Tuesday.

One speaker after another told the meeting of 120 officials sponsored by the International City Management Assn. that owners of professional franchises are putting unprecedented pressure on public authorities for big giveaways, which many say are unjustified by simple economics.

For instance, Assistant New York City Comptroller Steven Newman on Tuesday morning told how George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, is threatening to move the baseball team to New Jersey’s Meadowlands (a move made earlier by the New York Jets and Giants football franchises) unless New York gives Yankee Stadium a commuter train stop that would cost millions of dollars.

“Clearly, the most important aspect of sports is not economics,� said Newman, explaining the city point of view. “Never has been, never will be. It’s psychological. It’s a question of playing on municipal pride in having a team. . . . And often, it’s political.�

Loss of Yankees

Quite frankly, Newman said, neither the mayor of New York, nor any of the other New York politicians involved, want to be accused later of losing the Yankees. So, he indicated, the commuter train station might well be provided.

Another speaker, Mike McGee, general manager of the Summit stadium in Houston, said Monday that even as he spoke the City of Jacksonville, Fla., was detailing a $115-million, 10-year offer to lure the Houston Oilers football team to the Florida city.

“That’s $70 million more than they could receive in Houston during the same time frame,� McGee said. He said he wondered whether the offer wouldn’t be accepted that day. (It wasn’t).

William Waterman, chairman of the Stadium and Building Authority for the Pontiac, Mich., Silverdome, said the experience of his facility is that it must give away so much in services to get big events, such as the Super Bowl, that there is no way it gets a fair return unless a big commercial firm, such as General Motors, also comes in to help subsidize the event.

These were only a few of the examples given here. Washington representatives told how Redskin football team owner Jack Kent Cook is threatening to leave for the suburbs unless he’s given a new, fancier stadium in Washington. The executive assistant to the mayor of Charlotte, N.C., said his city was willing to build a $47-million stadium to entice a National Basketball Assn. team to Charlotte. Baltimore was said ready to build two stadiums to attract teams.

At a panel discussion Tuesday morning, a stadium expert, Lake Forest College economics Prof. Robert Baade, said that “more aggressive behavior� by team owners, making ever-greater demands on public officials, is beginning to be balanced by what he termed “greater public awareness of owner extortion.�

But, he went on, there is still a need for “cities to develop countervailing of power to avoid being used and exploited� by the owners.

Difficult Position

Ray Ward, executive vice president of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, had said earlier that the city’s position in relations with the owners is a difficult one.

“They attempt to deal with the less knowledgeable, more pressurable type of official,� he said, and to change what ought to be a business relationship into “an exercise in macho. “

Ward said that in some cases, officials conclude “that if you have to have a team, you’d better resign yourself to giving them the office keys.�

On Monday, Cincinnati Reds baseball team owner Marge Schott opened the conference by mentioning some of her frustrations in dealing with Cincinnati officials.

While expressing devotion to Cincinnati, her hometown, Schott said, “There’s always a chance of a team moving--because that’s where the big bucks are.�

Irwindale Perspective

While the tenor of the conference was mainly that the professional team owners are usually unreasonable, a different point of view was presented Tuesday afternoon by Xavier Hermosillo, spokesman for the City of Irwindale, who told the meeting that Irwindale has found Raiders owner Al Davis “very reasonable and supportive.�

Irwindale feels that the money it is putting up to secure the Raiders is well within reason, because it has concluded that the team will bring in $250 million in business to the city every year, Hermosillo said.

Other speakers were skeptical about such projects. “The economic bandwagon may be greatly exaggerated,� said the Summit’s McGee. “It’s becoming almost impossible to get a good deal.�