All three teams god pretty sweet stadium deals. This whole tailgate thing got me thinking. Lets take the cheapest sport to attend the astros You can get really good seats for 50 bucks, but I am sure you can cheaper 10 dollar tickets too. Here is how they make their money: beer $9 hotdog 4.50 soda 4.50 nachos 8.50 etc. The leases these owners got were pretty sweet. I know the taxes are like hotel taxes and stuff, but still its kind ridiculous that team like the texans which is raking in cash, that we had to foot the bill.
that side of the equation seems a little easier to figure out. stadium partially financed by taxpayer money, sports team / stadium owner seems to get a "sweetheart" deal. The other side of the equation, which is harder to put math to, is what the sports team brings to the town, beyond just entertainment for the fans of the team. I remember east downtown before Enron/Minute Maid got rolling. Not pretty. Now, it's where a bunch of the action is. Reliant Stadium = Superbowl and it's money, etc. Not that it makes it any less difficult to stomach that someone on the other end seems to be benefitting. But I don't think cities/government entities are going to be buying sports teams anytime soon, so kind of a catch 22. It is a unique industry. I didn't personally vote for any of the stadium deals. But I'm glad they all got built and all the teams are in town.
In the wake of high-definition TV programming and plummeting HDTV costs, there is little incentive to go games if the stadium experience is crappy. That can lead to a cycle of problems: Old stadium with poor fan experience --> Decreased fan attendance (gate receipts) --> less team revenue --> lower payroll --> crappier team --> decreased fan attendance I dunno how the TV contract affects total team revenue but I suspect even a good TV contract can't top good gate receipts + concession sales. It's easy to complain about subsidizing stadiums now after they've already been built but look at end result of the 'old stadium with poor fan experience' cascade: the Oilers moved to TN. That fact had to be in the back of the mind of sport fans when those votes came up. I love the Texans but had the Oilers stayed in town I'd still be a big fan of them now.
I'm fine the way Houston and most other cities pay for part of the stadiums cost. It's paid for by hotel and rental car taxes. If you live in Houston and stay in hotels a lot, you've probably got other problems to worry about. Since other places use this tactic, when we travel to other cities we are paying their excess tax on hotels and rental cars.
I took my son to a Astros game this summer. My son got in free and my ticket was about $15 (nice seats btw). One trip for food cost me $31 and I got 2 drinks 2 personal pizzas 1 popcorn in a plastic baseball hat
This is basically how I justify it in my mind with regard to taxes helping to pay for the stadiums. MM is built - downtown gets reborn. Reliant is built - Superbowl and college bowl games. Toyota Center is built - adds more to downtown and we get a slice of the NCAA tourney. All in all, I think stadiums are good for Houston, so I vote for them.
Stadia have been indisputably good for Houston. Building, maintaining, and running them provides many jobs from vice-president of ticket sales on down to the guys working pedi-caps to and from the parking lots. That's not to mention the fact that stadiums house teams which can help a city form a cohesive identity and experience emotional highs and lows in the public sphere together. If Toyota Center had not been built, the Rockets may well have moved away, and would there be any Clutch Fans for us to discuss the issue in that case? Yes, some rich men get much richer off of publicly-funded stadia, but the community benefits tangibly, too. I was in favor of the new Dynamo stadium and I'd vote for a new hockey arena (or ballet theater, for that matter) even though I'm not a fan.
I voted yes, because I DID vote for those stadiums...but I'm very disappointed in the development around MMP. I really thought there'd be more 10 years after the place opened for business...especially considering attendance has been great for most of those years.
