The San Diego Padres are covering about a third of the $449 million cost of their new ballpark, Petco Park, and the Philadelphia Phillies are covering about 40 percent of the $453 million Citizens Bank Park. The St. Louis Cardinals are covering about 75 percent of the team's $387.5 project, which is under construction.
Similarly, an analysis of recent ballpark construction deals done for the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority said that, on average, about a third of costs are paid for with private funds.
Officials from the Phillies and the Padres said their goal from the outset was a deal that would have the teams to contribute a third of the cost.
Jerry Clothier, senior vice president of the Phillies, said the team initially settled on a goal of splitting the cost equally among the team, the city and the state of Pennsylvania. In the end, however, the ballclub's portion increased.
"It was too costly for the team to put in all the money," he said, and still field a competitive team. "And you couldn't have the public pay for it all."
Economists and other sources familiar with sports financing said that in large, prosperous metropolitan markets such as Washington, teams are better positioned to pay for more of their ballpark construction costs.
"They can afford to pay more," Baade said. "In a place the team is going to have revenue from a whole lot of other sources, it can easily be financed privately."
"The viability from a team's financial standpoint depends largely on the market size -- it drives . . . media revenues, the corporate base, attendance revenue," said Erik Judson, vice president of development for the San Diego Padres. "You have to look at it city by city. In our case, that a significant portion came from the team was essential."
To many critics, the amounts themselves don't matter -- the fact that any public money is being used for ballpark construction amounts to a corporate giveaway. But even among those who concede that the public might see benefits from a new ballpark, the proposed deal in the District seems relatively tilted in favor of the owners financially.
The deal "indicates a strong desire for baseball in D.C. from public officials," said Matt Mitten of the National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
