It’s no secret that professional sports is a boon to newspapers in terms of attracting readers and revenue. Even when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
was fat with classified ads in the 1990s, it did everything possible to
promote the idea of a new, taxpayer-financed stadium for the Milwaukee
Brewers, including lobbying the state legislature to support it. Now
that the JS has hit lean times, it is even less likely to raise questions about a bailout for a pro sports team.
Which brings us to the new study released last week by the Green
Bay Packers. The study concluded the team had an economic impact of
$281.5 million in 2009 and could increase that by adding 10,000 seats
to the 72,929 at Lambeau Field and further developing the commercial
potential of the surrounding land the team now owns.
The obvious question to be asked is who is going to pay for this
expansion: the team or the taxpayers? But guess what? The question was
never asked, either by the Journal Sentinel or the Green Bay Press Gazette.
The expansion of Lambeau Field, which was completed about five
years ago, cost just more than $300 million, including some $169
million from a public subsidy – a half-cent sales tax paid by Brown
County taxpayers over a period of many years. So will the latest
expansion need more support from taxpayers? The Packers media flak
never returned my call, so I can’t say.
But in case after case, pro sports teams wanting a bail-out
typically (1) do an economic impact study; (2) note their competitors
are making improvements to their stadiums, which may leave the home
team at a disadvantage (which this study did); and (3) let us know that
a new or expanded stadium will lead to wonderful things for the
community. Or, as JS reporter Don Walker concluded in
reporting the study, there is “enormous potential for generating new
revenue, new construction and new jobs in the region.”
The study,
by AECOM Technical Services based in Los Angeles, is quite detailed.
The Packers are unique because they are a small-town team, where most
of the fans (and spending) comes from elsewhere: The study found 87
percent of fans and 82 percent of training camp attendees came from
outside Brown County.
The study looks in great detail at what’s on the land in a
three-quarter mile radius surrounding Lambeau Field: There are exactly
2,704 parcels of land, of which the vast majority is privately held,
with 88 commercial properties, 32 industrial and 2,554 residential. The
study even breaks down the age of each home (if you’re interested,
about 76 percent were built prior to 1969).
Why all this data? Well, the Packers are expanding: Over the
past five years, the team spent $27 million to purchase 28 acres (21
parcels of land), paying an estimated $10 million more than the
assessed value, the study discloses. Yep, the team seems ready to add
more venues for fans.
After all, there are only five drinking places located within
that three-quarter mile radius of the stadium (along with 20
full-service restaurants), according to the study, so perhaps there’s
potential to add some Packers-themed places run by the team. The study
also looks in detail at every possible revenue opportunity for the
stadium, from big-time rock concerts to college and even high school
football championships to soccer and hockey games to snowmobile races.
Like most Wisconsinites, I’m a Packers fan. And like most, I
love the fact that they are community owned. If there were ever a team
you might feel good about handing some tax dollars, it would be the
Packers.
And maybe, just maybe, the team doesn’t intend to ask for a
bailout. But it’s worth nothing that even this beloved team could
barely get the taxpayers of Brown County to approve the last bailout. (It passed with just 53
percent of the vote.) So the team would have every reason not to
telegraph their intentions. Which is exactly why the media should be
asking questions.
Feingold in Trouble
Should we stick a fork in Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold? More and more experts are predicting he will be defeated by Republican challenger Ron Johnson. Elections analyst Nate Silver, whose FiveThirtyEight.com is famed for having correctly predicted the results for 49 of 50 states in the 2008 presidential race, has all but thrown Feingold to the scrap heap, giving Johnson an 89 percent chance of winning the seat.
The news was just as bad from the respected Pollster.com, whose trend line tracking all polls shows Feingold 10 points behind.
On Sunday, Feingold offered brave words to The New York Times.
“We think this is essentially tied, and we think we have a lot of
horses to pull this out,” Mr. Feingold said. “This is going to be a
very interesting month.”
Certainly, Feingold is a unique candidate nationally and has
surprised people before. Many Republicans thought he had committed
political hari-kari by daring to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001 –
the only Senator to do so. Yet he ran a very smart race against
attractive Republican challenger Tim Michels in 2004 and easily weathered any criticism that he was unpatriotic.
But this is a tough year for incumbents, facing the worst
economy since the Great Depression. And Ron Johnson is wealthy, with
seemingly unlimited money to spend on ads, and comes off as both
personable and somehow senatorial in his ads.
If Feingold has any ace in the hole, it could be his opposition to free trade agreements. In an era where New Democrats such as Bill Clinton
supported these agreements, Feingold was a consistent opponent,
signaling his support for average working people. Right now, many of
these folks are out of work, and Feingold’s oft-repeated TV ad
contrasts his stance with that of Johnson, who made the mistake of
referring to the economic consequences of free trade as “creative
destruction.”
The fact that pundits are counting Feingold out before there
has even been a candidate debate speaks volumes about the degree to
which modern campaigns are driven by TV ads. Feingold is always very
good in debates, and his first encounter with Johnson is this Friday.
But he will need something awfully dramatic to happen. Incumbents
rarely come back from behind to win elections, and this could hardly be
a tougher year for such a feat.
The Buzz
-Last week, supporters of Mayor Tom Barrett leaked an
internal poll to the media showing the Democrat was in a dead heat in
the race against his Republican opponent, County Executive Scott Walker.
The poll, done by the liberal Greater Wisconsin Committee, was said to
show that Walker dropped from an 18 point to 2 point lead in Green Bay
while Barrett was winning 48 percent to 33 percent in Madison. But left
out of the information was how Barrett was doing in the crucial
battleground of Milwaukee County, where Democrats typically need to win
60 percent to carry the state. That seems ominous.
One Democrat tells me the poll showed there were still enough
undecided voters in the county for Barrett to reach that magic number.
That seems slightly less ominous. Barring something unexpected (Barrett
carries the Fox Valley?), he will have to do awfully well with those
undecided voters to win.
-Will the pope have to testify regarding a sexual assault case in Milwaukee? News Buzz reports.
-Pressroom Buzz explains why some local journalists are wishing they had never heard of Montaous Walton.
-And the Sports Nut wonders just how long Doug Melvin will last with the Brewers.
