Baseball (Camelback Ranch) Is To Blame For The Glendale Budget Shortfall
By Jack Briggs
From the Arizona Republic Oct 10, 2010 by Rebekah Sanders.
The facilities have not made the city nearly as profitable as analysts promised at the beginning, but the city until last year managed to cover yearly debt payments for the arena, conference center, media center and parking garage with revenue generated in the sports district. The revenue included property taxes, sales taxes and fees from the Coyotes and arena concerts.
But when ballpark debt was added last year, the total bill for sports debt rose to about $31 million.
Glendale didn’t have enough to cover the ballpark payment since the shopping complex planned near the baseball stadium hasn’t broken ground.
The city used borrowed money for the $13 million ballpark payment. Those reserve funds will run out in two years. If the gap between revenue and sports debt grows in the coming years, financial experts say, Glendale will have to cut city services, raise taxes or issue more bonds to pay the original debt.
From the same article a few paragraphs down:
In Glendale, the mayor says the city never set out to attract sports teams for the entertainment value.
“The reason we got into this business in the first place was because of the number of people who come into the community because of these events,” Scruggs told a community group recently.
“If we had stayed where we were, what would have brought money into the city?” she asked.
Since the city formed the sports district, companies have relocated there. Nearly 2 million people attended games and concerts in Glendale last year, the city said. An additional 20 million shopped, dined or visited the sports district. Those visitors pumped roughly $13 million in sales taxes into city coffers last fiscal year.
Conclusion: 13 million in sales tax dollars went into Glendale in 2010. Imagine how much more will be spent as the Coyotes continue their winning ways as fans invest not just emotionally but financially with a stable ownership group. Furthermore, Mr. Jamison knows how to promote an arena. The HP Pavilion just did not spring up overnight. He works to fill it with events 300 days a year. That is more than double what Jobing.com does currently. That is additional ticket sales tax money, food and beverage, and employee taxes.