By Carrie Ann Sitren
How do you close a $35 million budget gap? Perhaps the better question is why that hole was dug in the first place. One answer for the City of Glendale is hockey. In fiscal year 2012, the city added $20 million (up from only $1.2 million the year before) to its operating budget for the Jobing.com Arena, where the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team plays. The NHL has been demanding financial support from the city since 2009, when the team filed for bankruptcy.
Instead of looking for ways to cut arena operating costs, city officials are considering a 0.8% increase in the sales tax. This would make Glendale the city with the highest sales tax rate in the nation. It would also be enough to cover the $20 million city payment for Coyotes hockey next year.
In other cities, like Oakland, taxpayers don’t pay high dollars for someone else to manage their arena. Instead, professional management groups compete for that right. Arena management can be a profitable business, with groups maximizing concert and other entertainment events and keeping the revenues from concessions and ticket sales. Meanwhile, cities benefit because they don’t have to pay the operating costs. In some arena contracts, like the Sprint Center in Kansas City, the city also gets a cut of the profits. Last year, arena management added $1.8 million to Kansas City’s budget.
A few million dollars in the door would be a well-needed substitute for $20 million going out of Glendale for its arena. We have yet to see city officials open bidding for management. Given the heavy competition for it in other cities, Glendale should consider that option before asking taxpayers to cough up more sales taxes and for another year of hockey.
Carrie Ann Sitren is an attorney with the Goldwater Institute.
Learn more:
Goldwater Institute: Goldwater Institute v. City of Glendale
Arizona Republic: Glendale Budget Looking Bleak
Associated Press: No Team, No Problem for Kansas City’s Sprint Center
In a free market, sports teams pay their own way, which means no tax breaks and no free taxpayer money.
The good people of Glendale did not bankrupt the Coyotes … but the coyotes may bankrupt the city.
New leadership is needed. Jerry Weiers is running for Glendale mayor. That’s a good start.
There’s a young attorney running for Mayor named Walt Opaska. He has worked at AZ Right to Life for while and he has helped with securing proper elections with Bill Gates.
I heard Weiers was just looking for another position since he got redistricted out of his old one. Walt is young, smart and dynamic. I think Glendale could use someone with an analytical eye(not really Jerry’s strong suit.)
Youth and smarts are important. Experience and wisdom trumps them. Jerry Weiers is smart, cagey even, and has proven he can get things done. Let Opaska work on a city commission or committee for a few years, then run for office. Or start with the city council. Glendale needs experienced leadership. Weiers can provide that on day one.
Grew up in Glendale in the 60′s & 70′s, dad was in City Administration, they were one of three cities nation wide that were operating in the BLACK – what a joke it is today.