SBC Park, first known as Pac Bell Park, replaced the aging and poorly located Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 2000. Lots of feasibility studies were done on the new baseball stadium -- by the Giants, a city task force and citizen groups -- but their estimates and conclusions were wildly disparate.
A bunch of sites were put forward, and lots of ballot propositions were put to voters, but the plan voters finally approved was one in which almost all direct costs were borne by the team owners -- aided by the $50 million that Pacific Bell Telephone kicked in for naming rights.
(Part Of The Proposed Anacostia Site/Marvin Joseph -- The Washi)
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San Francisco took nearly two decades to come up with this plan. Its concerns should be heeded by Washingtonians.
For example:
• Will the need for city services -- police, traffic control, Metro service, new sidewalks and sewers, etc. -- increase, and if so, at what cost?
• Will huge traffic jams ensue?
• Will parking be adequate?
• Are the job-generation and economic development projections bloated?
• Are there sufficient guarantees that the team will remain in Washington? City-hopping, lured by better deals elsewhere, is the name of the game in professional sports.
The big lesson is: Don't use public money for a new stadium -- make the owners pay for it. Professional sports teams are massive profitmakers, mainly when owners sell the team.
Almost every penny of the $319 million cost of Pac Bell Park is being borne by the team -- unlike what happened in Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee and other major league cities. Larry Baer, the Giants' chief executive, noted that other teams were not happy with the San Francisco outcome, fearing "it might be proof that professional teams don't need taxpayer help."
Let's hope so.
CHESTER HARTMAN
Director of Research
Poverty & Race Research Action Council
Washington
