THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604210098
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 166 lines
Lawmakers are limbering up for a little hardball this summer, a high-stakes contest that could test regional friendships, state finances and Virginia's love for the national pastime.
The prize: a major-league baseball team in Virginia, one that would carry the state name - like the Texas Rangers or California Angels - and play in a posh new 45,000-seat stadium near Washington.
The price: about $30 million a year in operating costs and debt payments, some of which would likely come from the state budget - and the pockets of every taxpayer from home plate to Cumberland Gap.
A special subcommittee of the General Assembly will meet Monday to consider how state money might be used to build a stadium in Northern Virginia.
Hampton Roads officials are watching carefully, aware that the negotiations could set a precedent and affect efforts to attract major league hockey or basketball to the region. Fans in Southwest Virginia could be asked to help finance a team hundreds of miles away - one that could shut out baseball plans in Greensboro, a few hours south.
If plans fall into place, legislators throughout Virginia would have to decide whether to treat professional sports as recreation or business; baseball as an extravagance or as a multimillion-dollar corporate investment.
Already, state lawmakers are summoning memories of childhood afternoons watching the old Washington Senators. And the idea of buying a stadium for wealthy businessmen in the most affluent market in the country has touched off debate over the merits of government handouts in baseball's new million-dollar era.
``What are we, a bank?'' asked Stafford Sen. John H. Chichester, co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and ``a glutton for the Boston Red Sox.''
``We better not get into the business of financing playgrounds for baseball players. Let the owners issue the bonds, let the market determine what's a good investment for the community.''
Countered Mike Scanlon, part of a Virginia investment group hoping to buy a major league team: ``The impact is tremendous. It's like moving a $400 million corporation into Northern Virginia. The benefits (which) something like that can bring the state in tax revenue and economic stimulus speak for themselves.''
Scanlon thinks his group has at least a sporting chance of landing a team in Virginia - but only if it can promise a new stadium to the major-league owners. And to make that promise, they need help from the state government.
Specific proposals are still being developed, but other projects around the country have been financed with special lottery games, sales-tax increases or special regional taxes.
How much of the $30 million projected annual cost the state might bear is unclear. The ownership group could pay some but will be cash-strapped just to buy the team. And the two localities seen as probable stadium sites - Arlington and Fairfax counties - are in little position to carry all of the $235 million debt a stadium would demand.
The legislative subcommittee hopes to find an answer, possibly with a financing proposal that could go before the full General Assembly in time for the team to open at RFK Stadium in Washington next spring. A recommendation is due by July 1.
Baseball supporters imposed the tight schedule hoping to accommodate the Houston Astros, a major-league team expected to shop for a new home this summer. Scanlon's group, led by telecommunications executive William Collins III, is willing to pay $160 million or more to buy the Astros and move them to Northern Virginia.
By most accounts, a baseball team could be a financial success. Virginia is the largest state without some major league franchise, and Washington is easily the largest market without baseball. Washington-area fans would have the highest average income in the major leagues.
And the state would reap benefits. Virginia could collect about $1.8 million a year in income taxes just from the players' salaries, according to one study. The games would generate almost $5 million in sales taxes every year.
The national trend has been toward public financing for sports stadiums. Coors Field in Denver will be paid for with a regional tax, for instance. Maryland approved a special lottery game to build a stadium for the new NFL Ravens.
Both those projects were pitched as urban revitalization and economic development.
``I can't for the life of me understand why people draw a distinction between the Houston Astros and something like Motorola,'' said Del. Jerrauld Jones, a Norfolk legislator involved in trying to finance a sports arena for NHL hockey or NBA basketball in Hampton Roads. ``They're both businesses with a lot of money and a lot of jobs.''
But unlike other economic-incentive offers - to companies like Motorola or IBM - baseball promises neither a wealth of skilled jobs nor any commitment to the community, critics argue. Owners in the NFL, for instance, have been accused of virtual extortion, hopping from city to city looking for the best deal, breaking leases and making their new home cities pay the costs.
And Virginia, while one of the country's more financially stable states, is still more than $2.5 billion in debt - and pushing the limits needed to keep its rock-bottom loan rates. Money borrowed for a sports team, critics argue, could pinch out roads, schools or prisons.
``Something like professional baseball can price itself out of its own market,'' said Isle of Wight Sen. Richard J. Holland. ``The state sure wouldn't want to be in a position of having to make up the difference if they can't pay their bills.''
Most expect professional baseball's course through the legislature to be more grueling than a 12-game road trip. Washington-area legislators in the Maryland General Assembly nearly derailed state financing for Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards. And they had to battle the Orioles - just a few notches below the crab cake on the state's list of civic treasures.
Collins, meanwhile, is hawking a team without a name, in a state that often considers Washington about as Virginian as clam chowder.
Gov. George F. Allen said he likes the idea of professional baseball in Virginia, but will only commit state resources if he's sure of a good return. ``We can't let the emotion of having a Virginia team get in the way of taking a very business-like approach to this,'' Allen said in an interview Friday.
The governor said he might consider using some statewide money to help with financing, but only if he's convinced it's a good deal. He prefers a plan using an admissions tax or a regional sales tax. A plan like Maryland's, using lottery money to pay the debt? Out of the question, he said.
``Ideally, they should have the users - those who go to the games and buy the products - paying the costs,'' Allen said. ``It shouldn't become a burden on people in Virginia Beach or Danville or in Southwest Virginia.''
A final site for the stadium has not been selected, but the front-runners are spots off I-95 in Springfield and a site on the Potomac River in Arlington near National Airport. Both would be hundreds of miles from the farthest corners of Virginia - making regional resentment another possible hurdle.
Hampton Roads officials hoping to bring professional sports to the region say cooperation now could help them in the future. People opposed to a sports complex in southeastern Virginia hope poisoning that cooperation could have the opposite payoff.
Many Virginians in the southwest live much closer to cities in North Carolina than Washington. And Greensboro is making a spirited effort to attract one of several teams looking for new homes. A Washington-area team would only make their prospects worse. Still, most see regionalism as a secondary concern.
``The folks in Roanoke are pretty broad-minded people,'' said Roanoke Del. C. Richard Cranwell, also a member of the subcommittee studying major league baseball. ``They know the state is like a human body, with arms and legs and hands and hearts and livers. And you don't nurture just part of it.''
Of course, everything assumes the issue will go to the legislature at all, which is far from guaranteed. The only person who can call a special legislative session is the governor, and he said he'd rather not call one - especially during baseball season. Spending $200 million is not something you rush into, he said. Other state officials agreed.
``The real difficulty with all of this is that you're asking legislative bodies to make the decisions that investment bankers make - with market studies and months of research,'' said Cranwell, chairman of the House Finance Committee. ``If it makes sense for Virginia, then I'm sure it can be worked out. But they'll have that burden of proof - that it makes sense for Virginia.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color photo]
KEY PLAYERS
Some people involved in the decision-making process:
Sen. Richard L. Saslaw,
D-Springfield, co-chairman of the baseball subcommittee, (703)
644-6464
Vincent F. Callahan Jr.,
R-McLean, co-chairman of the committee, (703) 356-1925
Del. Alan A. Diamonstein, D-Newport News, committee member, (804)
873-4600
Del. William P. Robinson Jr., D-Norfolk, committee member, (804)
622-4770
Paul D. Fraim, mayor of Norfolk, committee member, (804)
664-4679
KEYWORDS: BASEBALL MAJOR LEAGUE by CNB