by C. C. Elebash
The Community Maritime Park (CMP) has become -- in actuality -- the “Community Baseball Park.” Outside events overtook the 2006 referendum. The sharp decline in real estate values and prolonged recession changed everything. The current Maritime Park plan bears little resemblance to the initial proposal. The baseball stadium is the only major component remaining intact.
As a result of changed conditions, the City cannot fulfill promises made during the referendum campaign. The public is not getting what they voted for.
• UWF has postponed the maritime museum indefinitely. The University lacks construction and operating funds. The outlook is dim.
• It is almost certain that a UWF classroom building will never be built. Internet “distance learning” has made small branch campuses obsolete.
• A conference center is improbable.
• Construction of the $12 million office building has not been scheduled.
• The public park will lack amenities that were publicized before the referendum.
• The CMPA 2006 promotional materials featured a 1910 era fishing village motif. That theme seems to have faded away.
Pensacola will pay out $90 million over the next 30 years to retire CMP bonds. The baseball park’s share will be at least $30 million, likely more. Minor league ballparks are lousy local government investments. They do not attract out-of-town money or out-of-town people. Impartial expert analyses find that stadiums do not create new economic activity. Pensacola is foolish to build a stadium when the City – like municipalities all over the country – faces severe fiscal constraints.
The baseball team now wants to expand stadium seating. This will require additional funding. Where will the money come from?
It would be an affront to the citizens to further degrade public areas in order to pay for stadium expansion. The ballpark was always unpopular. Almost all opposition to the Maritime Park focused on the stadium. It is ironic that, among major CMP components, the least wanted is the sole survivor. Team owners should find expansion money from private sources.
Look no further than Mobile to see what may lie ahead. Their baseball team has financial difficulties. The owners are far behind in rental payments to the City of Mobile. Attendance and revenue declines began before the recession started. Mobile’s experience is not unusual. Similar situations are commonplace in minor league sports.
Meanwhile, there is some good news! The old Trillium property will soon be environmentally “green”. City Hall can proceed with the long-awaited waterfront public park (although with fewer niceties). The City can then, hopefully, lease out remaining parcels to private investors for suitable development.
Despite the good news, the “Community Baseball Park” will not produce the grand results the promoters continue to tout. Much more likely, the stadium will be a burden on the City of Pensacola for many years.
Note: Mobile’s ballpark mess is consistent with a January 2010 Wall Street Journal article which said: “… a slew of studies have shown that publicly subsidized stadiums -- usually paid for by selling bonds and paying the cost and interest with tax revenue -- rarely return the money governments put into them.”
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