There is no aphrodisiac as potent as professional sports, at least when applied to government officials. The lure of conventional sin seems a thing of the past for most public people. But throw the most sensible folks in government into a matter involving sports, and especially stadiums, and nothing good will emerge.
There's a big discussion to be had about taxpayer subsidies of professional sports venues. Anyone who has crunched the numbers knows that these are almost invariably bad deals. They create almost no permanent jobs. Instead, they enrich the already wealthy owners of football, baseball, basketball and now soccer teams. This peaked in the reckless waste of money by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who decided to toss around $10 billion to the owners of the Yankees, Mets and Nets — just as budgets for schools, trains and parks were slashed. In gratitude, all three teams raised ticket prices to astronomical levels.
Now watch what happens when the government decides it needs a luxury suite as part of the deal.
At Yankee Stadium, the Yankees were consistently outmaneuvering the city on issues big and small. They got the big bucks for a Rolls-Royce stadium, and then won every side deal, from control of pushcart vendors and beer hawkers to parking garages to TV rights to signage. But when the city demanded a luxury suite, the fur began to fly.
The Yankees weren't in the suite-giving vein: Yankee president Lonn Trost to NYC, "For clarity, no seats, no suites, no tickets, and as they say in Brooklyn, 'No nothin'.'"
The city barked back, "No nothin' can go both ways," and brought Bloomberg into the battle: "This is a big issue to the mayor."
Yankees honcho Randy Levine demanded compensation from the city, "If we want a deal on the suite, he wants 250 (parking) spaces."( later supplemented by $750,000 in signage revenues).
They got close to a deal. Then the city demanded free food. Levine threw a fit: "Randy believes he told you 'no food' and that you agreed. If this is so, please let me know and we can drop this from our list of irritants. It sticks like a bone in everyone's craw. The Yankees feel the city should pay for any food it wants to consume, and I think it's a little unseemly to require 'free' food." After more grumbling, the deal for a luxury suite got done.
With this sort of history, it's a little strange to see Team Cuomo lurch back into the same swamp. They're a savvy bunch with a keen ear for press and public relations. Yet, as part of a deal to put $54 million of taxpayer money into a redone stadium for the Buffalo Bills, there it was again — a luxury suite for the government.
The stated purpose: to allow the state to entertain those interested in "economic development." Apparently, the ability to buy the occasional ticket to entertain visiting moguls wasn't good enough.
They could have laid it off as an initiative of an uncontrollable state authority, the Empire State Development Corp., but instead they took direct ownership, and stoutly defended the luxury suite.
Politically, it's an unneeded headache. It doesn't fit in with the Cuomo mantra of government close to the people. It instead smacks of a sense of entitlement.
If any good can come of this, it would be a re-examination of any attempt to pour taxpayer dollars into the pockets of the owners of sports teams. We're broke, so says everyone. Schools and hospitals are wanting for money. Subsidizing sports facilities is a truly terrible idea — with or without a luxury suite controlled by the government. Stop already.
Richard Brodsky, a former state assemblyman from Westchester County, is a fellow at the Demos think tank in New York City and at the Wagner School at New York University.
