Folio's counter to EverBank and Shad Khan

[spuwho]

NE Florida's News & Opinion Magazine had a different outlook on the $63 million stadium upgrades.

Per Folio:

http://folioweekly.com/19-THINGS-WE-COULD-HAVE-DONE-INSTEAD-OF-BUILD-SHAD-KHANS-SCOREBOARDS,10463

19 THINGS WE COULD HAVE DONE INSTEAD OF BUILD SHAD KHAN'S SCOREBOARDS

By Jeffrey C. Billman and Susan Cooper Eastman

On its face, the deal was absurd, so absurd that it drew the mockery of no less than late-night sage Stephen Colbert: A city with so many very pressing needs giving a billionaire more than $43 million to install new scoreboards and soup up the stadium his lackluster football team calls home, all in the name of putting more butts in seats (and more money in his wallet).

The reality is more nuanced, of course, but still, that's essentially what Mayor Alvin Brown and the Jacksonville City Council agreed to last year. The city ponied up two-thirds of the money Jaguars owner Shad Khan — a man who owns a 61st-floor penthouse in Chicago — wanted for upgrades to EverBank Field to boost lagging attendance. (In 2013, the 4-12 Jags averaged 59,940 fans per home game, 28th out of the NFL's 32 teams. Call us naïve, but we think attendance and the team's record are more interrelated than attendance and the lack of ginormous scoreboards.)

And so, with much pomp and circumstance and a soccer match and a Carrie Underwood concert, Khan will unveil these enhancements on Saturday evening to tens of thousands of spectators — spectators, it's worth noting, who paid good money to see the upgrades their tax dollars had purchased — part of what Khan has called a tribute to Jacksonville: the two super-hi-def video boards, the largest in the world (as the several billboards around town informed us), that adorn both ends of the field. A section of these video boards will show other football games via NFL RedZone while the Jags play. There's also a new "fan zone," with two pools and 16 cabanas, a place for the well-heeled to luxuriate during the game (the cabana package, only $12,500 per game, includes 50 tickets).

This is in some respects a variation on a story we've seen play out in so many cities in Florida and across the country: sports team owners, 1 percenters all, demanding that taxpayers help build or enhance game facilities for them. These proposals are usually pitched to the public as a form of economic development or a fulcrum of community pride — making cities "world-class," taking them to the "next level." And these pitches are almost always successful, because there's almost always an implicit (or sometimes explicit) threat that if the city doesn't do what the sports team wants, the sports team may depart for greener and more acquiescent pastures.

In 2012, for instance, Miami taxpayers spent $639 million to construct a new stadium for the Marlins, a deal widely regarded as one of the largest boondoggles in sports history. In 2010, Orlando paid $480 million toward an arena for the Orlando Magic (and last year, committed another $70 million to a stadium for the Orlando City Soccer Club, which will begin play in the MLS in 2015). Just last week, the Detroit Red Wings unveiled plans for a new $650 million hockey arena, most of which will be borne by the residents of that bankrupt city.

This happens despite the fact that the economics literature is clear and unequivocal: Subsidizing stadiums doesn't boost communities' economies in any tangible way. In the words of economists Roger Noll and Andrew Zimbalist, authors of Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums: "A new sports facility has an extremely small (perhaps even negative) effect on overall economic activity and employment." According to economists Dennis Coates and Brad R. Humphreys, in a 2000 journal article: "Despite the beliefs of local officials and their hired consultants about the economic benefits of publicly subsidized stadium construction, the consensus of academic economists has been that such policies do not raise incomes." And so on.

The EverBank upgrades are something of a different animal — a much smaller animal, for starters. In 2007, a Jaguars-commissioned study determined that EverBank needed $148 million in work. (This, just two years after the city spent $24 million for improvements ahead of the 2005 Super Bowl.) The scoreboard package costs less than half of that, and much less than the half-billion or more a brand-new stadium would require. And there's an argument to be made that having a really nice stadium and a professional football team keeps Jacksonville on the national and international stage, and gives the community a sense of pride and place — intangible, rather than tangible, benefits.

But the underlying criticism is the same: Tax dollars helping a rich man get richer.

Corporate welfare.

The city would counter that, as Brown pointed out last year, "the revenue is already going to maintain the stadium. Now, it will be invested in some of the most significant enhancements in the history of EverBank Field."

And he's right: The $43 million came from bonds taken out against the city's bed tax, the 6 percent surcharge tourists pay on hotel stays, which netted a little more than $16 million in 2013. (Statewide, counties collect more than $650 million in tourism taxes each year, more than a quarter of which comes from Orange County alone; Duval is but a bit player in the state's tourism economy.) Of that amount, a third is set aside to promote tourism, another third is used to pay off the debt the city incurred to build what is now EverBank Field, and the final third is used for upkeep and maintenance at the football stadium, the Baseball Grounds and Veterans Memorial Arena.

Thanks to forces well beyond Alvin Brown's control — namely, Disney and other powerful tourism interests that pump millions of dollars into state legislators' coffers each election cycle — that $16 million can't be spent on, say, hiring new teachers or cops, or improving mass transit or cleaning up the St. Johns River. The tourism tax was created at the behest of the industry to promote tourism — and later expanded to sports facilities, under the dubious theory that they, too, promote tourism. The industry is very determined to keep it that way, to keep that Pandora's box very tightly sealed and to date, Tallahassee has been more than happy to oblige.

So even if you think the scoreboards are an egregious waste of taxpayer money, you can't really fault the mayor; he's playing the hand he was dealt.

But let's exercise our imaginations for a minute: What if those constraints didn't exist? What if those bed taxes, just like the property and sales taxes you pay, weren't horded by hoteliers and tourism interests? What if they could be spent on whatever we wanted or needed?

What could $43 million buy?

We have a few ideas — things we think would make Jacksonville a better place to live and work and raise a family, things that would bolster our environment and improve transportation and make our streets a little bit safer. (And a few things we threw in because we thought they'd be fun.)

This is a sports town. We get that. But the fact is, while the scoreboards will give Jaguars home games a commercial slickness, they won't do much of anything to improve this city's overall quality of life. And maybe, in light of Khan's celebration this weekend, it's worth thinking about what could have been.

1.) Restore Jacksonville's 50 dirtiest creeks. Almost all of Jacksonville's creeks are poisoned with pollutants, clogged with contaminated soil, and need restoration and stormwater treatment to return to health. In 2005, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection gave the city a list of the 50 dirtiest. In 2012, consultants estimated the cost of removing the 16,000 possibly leaky septic tanks within about a quarter-mile of the St. Johns River at $400 million. That $43 million would be just a raindrop, but what a place Jacksonville would be if its creeks and rivers were pristine again. (Brown's recent proposed budget calls for $12 million in capital investments for septic-tank removal, and another $12.5 million for other stormwater projects.)

2.) Increase police bike patrols. Stepping aside as couple of cops on bikes pass by makes a stroll along the Riverwalk feel safer, but the truth is, the bike patrols just aren't all that visible. With $43 million, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office could triple the number of cops on bikes, from the 15 deployed from Talleyrand to the Acosta Bridge to 45, and pay this expanded unit's salaries for eight years. Perhaps the JSO could also expand the bike patrol area to include 5 Points and King Street, as well as the Southbank Riverwalk and San Marco.

3.) Install 13,000 surveillance cameras. JSO recently put electronic eyes in the Northside neighborhoods targeted by Operation Ceasefire. The cops could expand that campaign to 13,0000 cameras so as to monitor the movements of our citizens — er, criminals. The Axis dome camera can be programmed to 256 preset positions, and has motion detectors that sense and follow movement and can zoom in for a close-up.

4.) Build a light rail line to the Northside. The city could turn the abandoned 4.8-mile S-Line track, which runs from the Prime Osborn to Gateway Mall, into a light rail system and pedestrian/bike path, as Ennis Davis of Metro Jacksonville has been advocating since 2007. In 2008, the rail line's price tag was estimated at $31 million.

5.) Extend the Riverwalks. For $43 million, according to 2011 estimates, both the Northbank and Southbank Riverwalks could be extended 3.5 miles. Of course, there isn't enough land available for that, but that money is surely enough to stretch the riverwalks as far as possible, and make them more people- and dog-friendly, with shade trees, water fountains and other amenities.

6.) Create a night trolley to connect urban core neighborhoods on weekends. This trolley service would make it easy to hop between the urban core's cultural hotspots, connecting Downtown, Riverside, San Marco and Springfield on weekend nights. Based on the estimated $30,000 JTA says it costs to run the Riverside trolley the first weekend of every month for a year, $43 million would fund four lines running from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. every weekend for 90 years.

7.) Restore the Emerald Necklace. Since 2000, there's been a plan in place to create eight miles of city parks with biking and pedestrian paths, which would connect to the St. Johns and ring Downtown with green. In 2000, the city estimated this project, whose name was coined by architect Henry Klutho, would cost $20 million. Because both creeks are badly contaminated, it's hard to pin down the exact costs to do it right. Safe to say it would cost more than $43 million but, hey, Jacksonville needs more places to gather and, if nothing else, that money would make a nice down payment.

8.) Build 3,308 covered bus shelters. Jacksonville needs bus stops where people can wait for public transportation with at least some protection from the elements. (Jacksonville averages four feet of rain a year.) Taking a cue from Phoenix and other cities, a bus shelter campaign could also be fashioned as a public art project.

9.) Put a down payment on an aquarium. AquaJax, the group seeking to build a world-class aquarium Downtown [Cover Story, "An Aquarium to Transform Jacksonville," Susan Cooper Eastman, April 9], estimates that the structure will cost about $100 million; $43 million covers nearly half of that.

10.) Extend the Skyway. It costs an estimated $7,229 per foot to extend Downtown's vastly underutilized circulator. For $43 million, the city could extend the Skyway for one mile, and still have a $3 million cushion. Think of it this way: Would more people ride the thing if it stopped in 5 Points? The city has already asked the feds for money to connect the Skyway to Brooklyn. Five Points is just a mile from there.

11.) Build (most of) a street-car line from Downtown to 5 Points. The total estimated cost is $50 million. This project was originally going to be funded by development impact fees, but those fees are on hold.

12.) Create a jobs program. For $43 million, the city could fund for a decade a jobs program that would pay 206 people in high-unemployment demographics $10 an hour for an internship or on-the-job training at area businesses for a year. Those businesses, then, would commit to hiring successful recruits for a period after the internship ends.

13.) Extend library operating hours at the Main Library and four branches from 10 a.m. to midnight on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and give people a place to hang out that feeds the soul and gives students time to research term papers. It would cost $371,820 a year to keep the doors of the Main Library and four regional branches open until midnight on weekends. With $43 million, we could keep that going for decades.

14.) Create the Jacksonville Mojo Residency. Free idea, Jacksonville, courtesy of your friends at Folio Weekly: As part of the Mojo Residency — hat tip to Shad Khan himself for the comment about the city's mojo that inspired the name — nationally and internationally renowned artists, musicians, gardeners, thinkers and others would receive a year-long fellowship, say, $100,000, plus access to a live/work space, to live and work Downtown and fashion a series of city-funded or city-supported happenings. Or, thinking bigger, Jacksonville could create a $43 million trust to fund art, music and literary projects, including the Mojo fellowship.

15.) Build a water park (and the world's biggest water slide). Schlitterbahn (that's German for "slippery road"), a company that owns water parks across the country, plans to spend $40 million on the water portion of a park in Ft. Lauderdale. We could do the same on the 40-acre Shipyards property. Oh, and as part of the deal, we could require the park developer to build the world's tallest water slide (the current champ, at Schlitterbahn's Kansas City park, is 168 feet, 7 inches tall, according to the Guinness Book of World Records), which is, for our money, way cooler than having the world's largest scoreboards.

16.) Hire a bunch of public schoolteachers: $43 million would pay for more than 1,100 first-year public school teachers to work in Duval County schools for a year. Or we could add 110 new teachers and pay them for a decade.

17.) Invest in Downtown. A lot. Earlier this year, the Downtown Investment Authority unveiled a plan to attract homeowners and businesses to the urban core through a combination of tax breaks and subsidies. This would all be funded by what's called tax incremental financing, which basically means leveraging future increased property values to kick-start growth now. Imagine what the DIA could do with an extra $43 million in seed money.

18.) Fund the USS Charles F. Adams Floating Museum. Speaking of the DIA, last year the group backed the creation of a museum out of the USS Charles F. Adams, which would be permanently docked along the Northbank at The Shipyards, highlighting Jacksonville's naval history and drawing upward of 150,000 visitors a year. The nonprofit Jacksonville Historic Naval Ship Association set a $3.4 million fundraising goal. We could pay for that and have mountains of dough to spare.

19.) Close down the Main Street Bridge and throw a one-night shindig that spans the St. Johns River. Cost: Hiring off-duty cops to redirect traffic, so not much. Forget the $43 million. We'd have a helluva party.

[Bill Hoff]

An illustration of priorities & perspective.

[Cheshire Cat]

Glad Folio has found it's old voice.  Bill your comment is perfect priorities & perspective.  This is what has been lacking so often in our local government. 

[ronchamblin]

The Folio piece is a breath of fresh air.  I was beginning to believe that the current mustached tycoon was going to ease along the path to greater power and influence -- and wealth -- without any criticism at all.  Folio ... having balls ... displayed its freedom ... and offered some welcomed questions. 

Now what if Kahn attempts to buy Folio for half a billion to silence any questioning of his path to further riches in our city?

Of course .. things are happening in Jax because of the mustached fellow.  And I can appreciate what he has done ... with a certain caution however.  Money is power, as they say.  Money, lots of it, allows maneuvering to achieve personal goals.

The issue will be whether the power structure in our city -- the mayor, the city council, and the various groups concerned with the direction of our city -- will ensure that whatever Mr. Kahn does to enhance his long term wealth -- that it also enhances the city's prospects for achieving its long term goals.   

Given the tycoon's maneuvering so far -- one step here ... another there ... all designed strategically to gain further favor and approval, and ... let's be honest ... funds from the city's coffers; the question will be whether or not the investments made by the tax payer will result in solid, long term gains for the city -- solid improvements in infrastructures .. as in along the shipyards waterfront.

How easy will it be to determine the long term effects of the various projects proposed for the shipyard area?  What will be the best use of this valuable waterfront area?  Will the proposed use enhance the tycoon's wealth for the short term, but at the expense of the city's long term effort to establish the "best" for its future? 

I urge caution.  Some tycoons are slick.  The wink of the eye to the mayor, and other powers in the city.  A tradeoff here, another there.  Give a little piece, then take another ... sometimes a big piece.  The tycoon is slick.  We ... somebody in our city ... must be slick too.   

 

 

[Noone]

An illustration of priorities & perspective.

Bingo Bill. You nailed it.

Now let's share a RICO kayak paddle through our CRA/DIA zone. 2014-305 Active legislation before the Jacksonville city council new docking Rules and PENALTIES will include Shipyards.

CRA/DIA Board meeting 7/30/14 4pm city hall. Open to the Public. Live Public Service feed on the new video scoreboards. Why not?

$63,000 scoreboards.
$200,000,000 plus million in the upcoming budget on projects using the banking fund.
A property tax increase.

A new Authority
Embrace It
Or
It will Embrace Us.

Priorities and Perspective

[mtraininjax]

Khan spends a few million on large pong screens, has a plan for the Shipyards (who doesn't these days), throws some money into his "stache" fund to help a few businesses, and then gets his picture with the Mayor with some towels around his neck.........you'd swear he should be given the key to the city. After all, the Mayor bends over backwards and gives Khan whatever he wants.

How quickly we forget the generosity of the Weavers. They recently gave their house to local charities and have given so much more back to the COMMUNITY. Look at their numbers and the good that has come from them. Mr. Khan, sir, you have a long way to go to give back to the community. After all, you could have easily donated your boat, Kismit, to a local charity, which would have gone a long way to show your generosity, but it was not meant to be. I hope he really and truly invests in Jacksonville, for the good, the bad and the ugly sides.

[pierre]

The article reads as an unsuccessful attempt at satire to me.

Considering the revenue from the tax used to fund the stadium upgrades cannot be used for things like hiring police, training teachers or building bus shelters. Perhaps the outrage should be towards the state governing how the revenue from the tax can be spent. And not at how the city is spending it.

[marty904]

The article reads as an unsuccessful attempt at satire to me.

I have to agree with you here, Pierre. "Haters gonna hate"...

All the people at Folio or on here that has an "opinion" of what Mr. Khan should or shouldn't do with his money - what have YOU done for the community?  Do you have an expensive toy that you have "donated" to charity, or even something not so expensive?  While sure, it is pretty common for the uber rich to "give" and become philanthropists, since when did it become mandatory for billionaires to give to the community (which he clearly has)?  It's really easy for people to have an opinion about how other successful people should spend their money.

As far as the city's contribution to the video boards, if you have a problem with the city's spending, talk about the city, not the entrepreneur that has worked hard to become successful.  AND when you are bitching about the city spending money to put Jax on the map by being able to say we have "biggest in the world" - try to understand that at least this city is using funds to draw tourism.

And like was pointed out earlier on here, have an understanding of HOW those specific funds can be spent, as mandated by the state, before you start trying to "play Mayor".

And THAT, like yours... is MY opinion

[tufsu1]

I think the article is pure genius....a dose of perspective (reality) is very helpful

[JeffreyS]

The jaguars brought Shad Khan and Wayne Weaver to town, now use your  folio to line a birdcage or something more useful than reading this article.

[KenFSU]

I think the article is pure genius....a dose of perspective (reality) is very helpful

How is a list of suggestions for how the scoreboard money could have been used, none of which are legally permissable using bed tax funds, genius, helpful, or realistic?

With all due respect to Folio Weekly, I expect better from them. Articles like this, which irrationally vilify Khan and the city for spending tax dollars on new scoreboards when library hours are being slashed and crime is on the rise, are pure sensationalism and do nothing but reinforce the overall ignorance of what the bed tax is, and how it can be used under Florida law.

I understand taking issue with bed tax policy, and I also understand taking issue with public subsidies being used for professional sports, but to lay these nationwide criticisms directly at the feet of Shad Khan and Mayor Brown, that seems a little misguided to me.

[KenFSU]

How quickly we forget the generosity of the Weavers. They recently gave their house to local charities and have given so much more back to the COMMUNITY. Look at their numbers and the good that has come from them. Mr. Khan, sir, you have a long way to go to give back to the community. After all, you could have easily donated your boat, Kismit, to a local charity, which would have gone a long way to show your generosity, but it was not meant to be. I hope he really and truly invests in Jacksonville, for the good, the bad and the ugly sides.

I love the Weavers and wholeheartedly agree that they have done a lot for this city, up to and including finding a new owner for the Jaguars who was intent on keeping them in Jacksonville. That said, Wayne Weaver also went to the city with hat in hand for stadium upgrades, and let's not pretend that Jacksonville and the Jaguars didn't make Wayne Weaver wildly rich either. Weaver bought the Jaguars for $140 million in 1993, and sold the team for $770 million in 2011. His net worth was $250 million when he purchased the Jags, and over $1 billion after he sold them. Good for him, I'm not bashing him for it at all, but I think it's way too early for any kind of Altruistic Weavers vs. Selfish Khan discussion.

[JeffreyS]

We sit around on this forum and complain about the city not investing in quality of life projects and then when they try to blast them for it. 

Is it just that this qol investment doesn't pass a snob test I don't know about.

Perhaps too many suburban people will like this so we have to reject it.

So no wish list about the money spent on the collins road off ramp or outer belt way from folio but hey never miss a chance to vilify a billionaire no matter how he has conducted himself.  Having the money makes him evil enough....

It is sad that this article seems to pass the smell test from some posters I usually think are bright. 

[pierre]

To be accurate, the bed tax can be used for whatever purposes the city votes for it.  Its for the promotion of tourism, not a piggy bank for any of the sports teams.

It certainly cannot be used for the majority of things listed by the Folio.

[Bill Hoff]

Jeffery S,

True.

If they wanted to identify multi million dollar subsidies for projects and ponder what else could be done with money, the list would be very long.