Cause & Effect, Chain of Events

Do you remember the Joe Diffie song Third Rock From The Sun? If you don't, here it is...



As the music video illustrates perfectly, one event or one decision almost always leads to a chain of events that follows.

For instance, if you decide that you are going to head down to the park, this will cause a chain of events that would not have happened if you would have stayed home. You could step out in front of a car, which would cause the car to slam on its brakes, which would then cause the driver to be behind schedule by a few minutes. To make up for this lost few minutes, that driver might decide to increase his/her speed, which would increase their chance of causing a wreck, which could lead to several fatalities. The chain of events may never end. That example is a classic case of cause and effect which results in a chain of events.

To explain sports venue financing and economic impact, we too can use the cause and effect model to explain why it is important to build sports facilities AND to build them in the correct location. Although sports venues can and usually bring in enough revenue to turn a profit directly from their own revenue, this is not the main goal of an arena, ballpark, or stadium project. Indirect benefits are the main purpose for constructing a sports venue which almost always confuses those taxpayers who only look at the direct bottom line.

Here's how indirect benefits works for sports venues. Let's say we are building a ballpark in our downtown...

1. We build the ballpark.
2. We build it next to existing retail or we build our own retail around it ( these development projects are now known as "ballpark villages").
3. We acquire a team who brings in high salaried players and front office workers. These workers pay income taxes into the city coffers that were used to finance the ballpark.
4. Our ballpark has raised the value of the property around it. We take this additional money which is taken from a program called TIF (Tax Increment Financing) and put it towards the ballpark financing if allowed by the state of Indiana.
5. We take the sales tax revenue from the surrounding retail and put it towards the ballpark's debt.

Look at the....

Chicago Cubs

(photo credit: cubworld.com)

Columbus Blue Jackets

(photo credit: arenadistrict.com)

Oklahoma City Redhawks

(photo credit: skylinescenes.com)

Although sports venue critics have claimed over and over that building a sports venue does not work, it has been proven over and over that it does work. Such success stories have been...

Columbus

http://bluejackets.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=479050

Dallas-Arlington-Fort Worth

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/09/12/2462447/economic-benefits-ripple-out-from.html

Seattle

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3452509

I will note that I was in Seattle back in 2007 when the Seattle SuperSonics were in the process of relocating to Oklahoma City. While the Sonics were trying to move, the city of Seattle sued to keep the Sonics from breaking their lease. To my knowledge, this lawsuit has been the ONLY time a sports team has tried to claim that there is no economic benefit from a sports team. Seattle's lawyers quickly fought this claim, but in the end the city let the team walk. Today, as you walk past Key Arena, you will notice closed up shops, run down sidewalks, and empty plazas. Very disheartening to see what has become of what use to be a vibrant district around Key Arena and the Space Needle.

It is important to understand that not all facilities use all of the above 5 steps. For instance, last year there was an article in one of the nation's main newspapers that claimed that the Metrodome was a mistake because it did not create one single retail building around it. Although there are no retail shops directly outside of the Metrodome, there is a light rail system that takes tourists all over downtown Minneapolis and to Bloomington, MN where Mall of America is. Development around the Metrodome has also increased steadily in the past 10 years as well. However, that is beside the point as the Metrodome is stronger in the player payroll tax and the sales tax categories due to the fact that it has hosted 2 Final Fours, 8 other NCAA basketball tournament events, and 1 Super Bowl.

These events bring in several million dollars a game...

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/minnesota/losing-vikings-game-costs-twincities-9-million-dec-13-2010

http://www.vikings.com/assets/docs/infrastructure-061311.pdf

As most of you remember, I talked about the huge mistake we made by not building the downtown ballpark...

http://saverobertsstadium.blogspot.com/2011/06/now-you-will-know-rest-of-story.html

And now it appears that our current baseball situation isn't working either...

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/jul/02/more-than-a-night-at-the-ballpark/

But the Otters have faced plenty of challenges, too — obstacles that go way beyond having a player turn in his uniform before a road trip. Bussing said financial losses are increasingly difficult to withstand, especially since the economy nose-dived in 2008.

I am very disappointed to hear this. Even more so given the fact that I compiled many ideas for improving the Otters and applied to work to help them turn the financial prospects for the team around...


http://evansvillemovingforward.blogspot.com/2010/03/ideas-for-getting-more-fans-to-otters.html

I, along with Mr. Adam Williams who is a member in my group Tri-State Tomorrow, met with the Otters late last year. We presented them with a plan to set up a festival before the first game. This festival would be to commemorate the first festival that took place when Bosse Field opened. It would also allow the Otters to increase the value for their sponsorships and increase revenue before the first game. Unfortunately, the Otters said they like the idea but we have never heard back from them yet. I hope they will reconsider this project.

Anyways, it doesn't surprise me that both the Otters and the city of Evansville are failing in the baseball economic impact department. So far, we have not followed any of the 5 steps to making Bosse Field a success. We have not...

1. Built anything acceptable for a ballpark village around Bosse Field.
2. Built anything that would increase property values.
3. Built anything that would encourage fans to come to Bosse Field for a game.
4. Attracted any events that would make any kind of impact on our payroll or sales tax revenues.

As a result, we no longer have the highest attendance in the Frontier League, our Bosse Field district is a ghost town when there isn't a game, the Bosse Field district has fallen into disrepair, and the Otters are struggling to make ends meet. If you drive through the Bosse Field district, you will see zero cause and effect economics occurring.

I don't know about you, but it makes me sick to my stomach to think of the great assets we have in Bosse Field and Roberts Stadium that are now being neglected. This one single decision we make with Roberts Stadium will send economic shock waves through our community. We can take 1 of 2 paths. We can...

1. -Demolish Roberts Stadium.
-Forego the economic benefits of minor league sports, youth sports tournaments, small concerts, and small trade shows at Roberts Stadium that will not be able to afford the new arena.
-Forego the opportunity to develop around Roberts Stadium with a botanical garden, indoor water park resort, and a rewatered Wabash & Erie Canal that would compliment Roberts Stadium.
-Continue to let the Bosse Field district fall into disrepair.
-Let the Otters continue to lose money.
-Let Bosse Field continue to fall into disrepair.
- Struggle to find an alternative use for Bosse Field to help the Otters stay afloat when the new ballpark is eventually built (don't worry we're going to get a new ballpark one day).
- Allow the whole Bosse Field district to continue to experience economic hardships.

Or

2. - Save Roberts Stadium
- Bring in indoor soccer, indoor football, minor league basketball to compliment mid-size concerts, trade shows, and youth sports tournaments to continue Roberts Stadium's economic impact on the city.
- Save room for the future construction of projects such as a botanical garden and an indoor water park resort which will allow us to use Roberts Stadium as a buffer between wildlife and the city. It would also allow us to save room for small retail and recreational businesses to develop the land between Hartke Pool and Roberts Stadium without affecting wildlife. It would also allow us to continue to bring in guests to Kipplee's.
- Build the ball fields at Kleymeyer Park or within walking distance of Bosse Field.
- Build the fields to replicate vintage MLB ballparks so that they are competitive with other cities and are able to attract a significant amount of tourists.
- Schedule championship games to be held at Bosse Field on the Otter's off days.
- Give the Otters a fair percentage of the revenue accrued from the championship games.
- Make a strong commitment to redevelop the Bosse Field district. This includes connecting Main Street again, redeveloping the warehouses around Bosse Field, demolishing any dilapidated buildings on West Morgan Ave and redeveloing the land to replicate Coney Island, and removing all toxins from Pigeon Creek.
- Set up an economic committee whose soul purpose is to acquire businesses for the Bosse Field district. There are many possibilities but I would like to try to bring the Frontier League's headquarters here, recruit MLB to set up a Negro League, Women's League, and ballpark museums around Bosse Field. I would also like to go after a Louisville Slugger bat museum and factory.
- Begin the process of building a new ballpark downtown on the river (Mulzer Stone site). In order for this to work, there will have to be a written agreement that the downtown A or AA team cannot schedule games that would be on the same day as Otters games.

I don't know about you, but I like the 2nd plan much more than I do the first. The most important thing I would like for you to take from this post is that we are not dealing with just the future of Roberts Stadium. We are dealing with the future of a good part of our city. If we decide to tear down Roberts Stadium and build the ball fields on that site, we will basically be sacrificing any chance we would have at developing a fair mid-size arena economy and any chance we would have at revitalizing our Bosse Field district. As a result, we will be bringing in less revenue while accruing higher maintenance costs on North Main Street and at the Roberts Stadium site. In turn, we will be seeing higher tax rates with less jobs. The Cause & Effect model will be spiraling out of control once more.

Yes, we can put other things next to Bosse Field, but can you name one single thing we could place there that would bring in more tourists, more development, and more revenue than youth ball fields that are small replicas of vintage MLB ballparks? I can't and I doubt anyone else can either.

For these reasons, it is extremely vital for the future of our city for city hall to STRONGLY consider placing the ball fields at Kleymeyer Park while repositioning Roberts Stadium as a mid-size arena.

More jobs, higher revenue, better development, and a stronger community; those are the kind of Cause & Effect consequences we need to start seeing around Evansville!