Are Public Sports Facilities Worth It? Part One

Here is the question: Should taxpayers fund sports venues for super wealthy owners and athletes?

This will mix some history with the above question, since history and community commitments to professional sports teams are central to how many people answer that question. I haven't really spent any time researching this, so most is from memory, although the recent death of Art Modell has brought the issue of private sports franchises operating in publicly funded facilities back into view, at least to some people, and the recent news coverage has refreshed my memory somewhat. Modell's sweetheart deal to move a solid franchise like the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore for the 1996 season showed that no franchise in any sport was really safe, and that ruthless owners could exploit the fear of a community losing its team to gain new or extensively updated facilities, with the cost largely, or entirely, borne by taxpayers. Generally, as professional sports developed (more so baseball, at first), well over a hundred years ago, cities had facilities for the local team or teams to play their games. Generally these facilities were small by many of today's standards, although Fenway Park in Boston retains much of the odd configuration of  some of the old ballparks,* but of course, even there they added more seats in recent times, and there has been a trend to build new ballparks more like the the intimate facilities of the earlier 20th Century.

Here in Cleveland, the Cleveland Indians played at "League Park" on the near East Side (E. 66th Street). Famous Cleveland players like pitchers Cy Young and Bob Feller and outfielder Tris Speaker played many a game there, as well as non Cleveland players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. Clevelanders approved funding for a new city owned multipurpose stadium in the late 1920s, the result being a new 80,000 seat colossus right off of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland.** The Indians played their first game there in 1932 in front of over 80,000 fans. Initially Cleveland Municipal Stadium did not have a fence, but the huge distance to most parts of the seats for a home run was prohibitive (fans like to see home runs), and a temporary fence was put up for baseball games (it could be taken down for football or other activities, and then reinstalled relatively quickly).*** The Indians continued to play at League Park, with occasional games moved to Municipal Stadium for big crowds. I believe League Park could only hold something like 25,000 people maximum, and that may well have included any standing room. The Indians permanently moved to Municipal Stadium after World War Two, and in 1948 the team drew an amazing (for those times) 2.6 million fans, a record which stood until more recent times, and that was when teams played 77 home games during the regular season, compared to 81 now (this started in the early 1960s).

Professional football was played at the new stadium in the 1930s, but it really took off in the post World War Two era with the Cleveland Browns, who regularly drew crowds of 80,000. Boxing matches, concerts and other events were also held at Municipal Stadium over the years. I have no idea how much the city of Cleveland charged for rent, but by the 1970s, tight budgets had the city turn the operation of the stadium over to Browns' owner Art Modell for a nominal annual leasing fee to the city (the city retained ownership of the property). Modell set up the "Stadium Corporation," with himself as head and majority owner, to run the aging facility, and he collected rent from the Indians and from the Browns (he was majority owner of the Browns, so he essentially paid rent to himself). He invested in new scoreboards (including smaller auxiliary scoreboards at various locations around the stadium) and he had a system of luxury loges, complete with bar service and televisions, built below the upper deck for corporate and wealthy fans, who paid an annual rent. The arrangement proved to be a good one for Modell, but not for the Indians, as they received none of the rental money. Over time, the Indians argued that with escalating payrolls, they needed all the income they could get to sign or retain quality players. That was years ago, it's far worse now! In the late 1970s, the Indians signed highly touted pitcher Wayne Garland for the sum of like $300,000. That was BIG money in sports back then; now you can't get a shortstop who bats .198 and makes two errors a game for that amount, which tells you how out of hand all of this nonsense is.

The loge rental money became a serious issue between the Indians' owners and Modell, who was their landlord. Since the Indians played 81 home games compared to the Browns 7 regular season games (back then) and one or two preseason games; the Indians were Modell's major tenant, but I don't recall how much they paid in rent or other fees, but I seem to remember they paid a base rent, and then some percentage based upon attendance. By the late 1980s, after much planning and arguing, a grand plan was developed to build a new sports complex on the southern edge of downtown, where the Indians would have a new ballpark and control their own revenue, the NBA Cavaliers would have a new arena, and the Browns would get a new stadium. Modell had been pushing for a dome on the existing stadium, but the plan did not have total community support, nor general support from the Indians, who wanted revenue from the increasingly popular (in other cities) luxury seating; something Modell did not want to share. Modell chose not to participate in the new complex, but to keep the Browns playing in the old stadium. Whether you like or hate Modell, he was NOT a stupid man, but undoubtedly his ego interfered with his judgment, a common problem for egomaniacs, as once a ballpark was open for the Indians, his stadium revenues had to fall.**** Modell's Browns were the kings of the town, but the new owners of the Indians (brothers Richard and David Jacobs) were smart business people. I just have to believe Modell could not bring himself to give up control of the old stadium, where he kept the Indians playing second fiddle to the Browns, and where he kept revenue for himself, and thus from their owners in a sports world gone nuts on big bucks.

So a few years later the Indians moved into their new ballpark, selling out the place for every game for several years. Meanwhile, the very first year the Indians were gone from old Municipal Stadium, Modell felt the pinch of his bad decision, as his revenue at the old stadium plummeted. Having missed an opportunity for a brand new stadium, still in a lease at the old stadium, ego bruised and undoubtedly envious of the success of the Indians (who were the talk of the town), and now seriously pressed for cash, Modell secretly negotiated with Baltimore and Maryland officials and moved the Browns to Baltimore, where he got a new stadium, revenue streams and public money to operate the franchise! There too he had to eventually take in a partner to supply money, which eventually brought him a Super Bowl win, but Modell's overall ego driven business sense left him in debt again, and the league eventually pressured him to sell the team, which he did.

With the Browns gone, the Cleveland community fought to get a new team with the promise of building a new football stadium, which took place at the same location as the old stadium. In 1999 a new Browns team started play in Cleveland. Now a new owner has just taken over in 2012, and just this last week or so the idea of putting a retractable dome on the football stadium has surfaced. The stadium is owned by the city and some people have wondered how to better utilize the large facility, which seats somewhere around 73,000, and to bring in more revenue. This is a major problem with football stadiums, since NFL teams only play 8 home games (in more recent times) and one or two preseason home games. What the hell do you do the rest of the 355 days? Like any building or home, just being in existence brings wear to such a facility, which then require repairs and updates, which all cost money. There has been criticism at times for placing the new stadium on the site of the old facility, right on the lakefront, where winds come whipping down from Canada, at times picking up moisture from Lake Erie and depositing it on land as either rain or snow. I'm not an architect or an engineer, but the critics have argued that this naturally takes a toll on the structure, which certainly makes sense, but whether having the football facility on the southern edge of downtown, along with the other facilities, would be all that better, is beyond me. Critics have also argued that the land on the lakefront could then have been better utilized for attractions to compliment the nearby Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Great  Lakes Science Center. Just to be clear, Browns Stadium is used for some college and maybe even some high school games or events, but not nearly anywhere enough to take a real chunk out of the 355 days when it is not used by the Browns, who don't even train there, but rather use a facility in the southwest part of town, in Berea, not far from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.   

Naturally every community's history with sports franchises varies, but this gives you an idea of what can go on. It should be noted that Baltimore suffered the loss of their NFL team, the Colts, in 1984. At that time Modell and many other owners spoke against such a move, as the Colt's owner, Robert Irsay, moved the team to Indianapolis without any announcement and in the middle of the night. In a show of extreme disconnect, many Baltimore fans cheered the arrival of the Browns and Modell, quickly forgetting their anger over the loss of the Colts, although many commentators and other fans noted their unease over those who cried and cursed the move of the Colts, but then wildly cheered the arrival of another community's team. In "Part Two" I'll try to put an answer to the initial question.    

* "Ballpark" was a common term in the past; and in fact, my father always used that term, never "stadium." The facilities themselves were usually called either "park" or "field," and some of the facilities were (some still are): League Park (Cleveland), Crosley Field (Cincinnati), Wrigley Field (Chicago-for the Cubs), Comiskey Park (Chicago-for the White Sox), Fenway Park (Boston, for the Red Sox), Braves Field (Boston-the Braves were originally in Boston), and Forbes Field (Pittsburgh), to name a few, but there were exceptions, notably Yankee Stadium in New York, but then New York also had Ebbets Field for the then Brooklyn Dodgers and the Polo Grounds for the then New York Giants (baseball, of course), and the New York Mets played there for the first couple of years of their existence in the early 1960s.

** Some city leaders hoped the new stadium would give Cleveland a shot at landing a future summer Olympics, and Municipal Stadium came complete with a great running track and plenty of room for other field events. The "official" number of seats for baseball varied over the years as adjustments were made, but when important games were held, the 80,000 figure was generally used, although that usually included standing room behind the fence. The biggest adjustment for baseball was for seating in the center field bleachers, where eventually seats in a number of sections were not for sale, and the seats were painted dark blue to provide a good background for batters. (Note: Similar happened in other cities too, as batters had complained about losing sight of the ball in white shirts worn by fans seated in the bleachers.) The temporary "baseball" fence that was put up around much of the outfield was a simple chain link type, and later (maybe mid to late 1960s, I just forget), blue padding was added to protect outfielders who crashed into the fence when chasing a fly ball. About 1980, I was at a game when the Yankees were in town, and, I guess by agreement with the Yankees (and maybe the American League?), attendants  took some of the padding down from the fence in right center field for standing room, and some fans were permitted to sit in the usually closed for baseball center field bleachers (they were not seated in direct center, but to the sides), as most or all of the regular seats had been sold.

*** The bleachers in dead center field were 480 feet from home plate, but then there was a fairly high wall, so a batter had to hit a ball over 500 feet to reach into that area of the bleachers, something that was never done in the more than 60 years of its existence. At some point (I believe in the late 1970s?), extra bleacher seats were erected below that wall for Cleveland Browns' games, but no one ever hit a ball on the fly into those seats either.

**** While I noted Modell wasn't stupid, his business judgment has oft been called into question, and he had frequent money problems, even with large cash infusions from other sources, until he left football. I use the term "egomaniac" for Modell, because winning a championship at ANY cost, no matter whose money or emotions were spent, became his life's goal, and that quest cost many people. That's what can happen when some people see themselves as the center of the universe and seem to say, "I'm important! I'm more important that you or anyone else." To me, they deserve a penalty flag.  

WORD HISTORY:
Stadium-This word traces back to the Indo European root "sta," which meant "stand." This gave its Greek offspring "stadios," which meant "something fixed in place." This then gave Greek "stadion," which meant "a running track of fixed size." Latin borrowed the word from Greek as "stadium," with the meaning "measured running track." English borrowed the word from Latin in the 1500s (some believe earlier), with the meaning "racetrack." When seating was added around such a track, the entire complex took on the meaning "stadium," which later often came to be applied to sports venues in general.