Cities Can't Handle Cost of the NFL

The New York Sun reports:

Football is arguably the most popular sport in America, but in the past two weeks, the league has been told by both Los Angeles and Anaheim that those cities aren't interested in spending huge sums of money to build stadiums to house franchises. Also, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller have let the owner of the Vikings, Zygi Wilf, and other league officials know that it is unlikely that state legislation will consider a financing package for a Vikings stadium in 2008.

Additionally, city officials in Santa Clara seem to be in no hurry to decide whether or not they want to entertain an offer from the owners of the San Francisco 49ers (John York, his wife Denise, and son Jed) to build a new football facility in the parking lot of a theme park. In San Diego County, the Spanos family seems to be out of luck in their efforts to get a new stadium built in the city's vicinity. They were told by city officials in 2006 to look elsewhere for a new facility, and the family has found out that National City and Oceanside don't want them, either.

So why is it that the very powerful NFL is getting doors slammed in its face? It all comes down to money. Cities have learned that spending hundreds of millions of dollars for new facilities that may be used no more than 15 times a year is not worth the effort or the expense. Football stadiums do not act as economic engines for standalone businesses: There is only a stadium and a huge parking lot. Unless that land is developed as it will be in Arlington, Texas, for Jerry Jones's new Dallas Cowboys facility, or the Giants' and Jets' Meadowlands project, football stadiums are virtually worthless economically because of a lack of use.

The failures of getting stadium funding in the Los Angeles market may have a domino effect on a number of franchises, including Wilf's Vikings, Tom Benson's New Orleans Saints, Ralph Wilson's Buffalo Bills, and York's 49ers and the Spanos' Chargers. To play the stadium game correctly, one needs competition and a threat of relocation. But neither Los Angeles nor Anaheim has decided to get into the game.

We are glad to see that some cities aren't falling for the looting of taxpayers under the guise of "economic development".