The city council of Mesa, Arizona, had to move fast. The mayor told them that it was “essential” that the council “move forward fast with this” deal. Has there been a single piece of evidence showing why this had to move fast? Of course not. This is intentional and done in almost every sports deal around the country.
Anyway, on the day before Thanksgiving, the city council held a 12-minute meeting (with no residents in attendance) that allowed for 80 acres of land to be classified as a “theme park district.” Moving forward, this land will now be called “Palo District.” The big prize of this deal was how it sets up for a new soccer stadium to be built on this land. For years, the city of Mesa has been trying to figure out a way to get either an MLS or NWSL soccer team to their city. When the city attorney went in front of the council to explain this project, he made “multiple references” to a stadium. A summary by the city states that this land can be developed with “restaurants, retail, lodging, offices, and a multiuse stadium that could include soccer.”
Thanks to changes in state law, the new owners of the land can now move forward with numerous economic advantages:
A significant number of tax breaks are given to the new owners (for example, the entire land is tax-exempt, and the owners could possibly receive a property tax exemption)
Control over the land will shift from the city to a four-person board
Revenue bonds can be issued and will be paid off with revenue generated from this project
A sales tax on business activity in the district can be levied to help fund the project
Only once has this type of transaction occurred in the state of Arizona. That was in 2021 when the Arizona Diamondbacks needed financial help for ballpark upgrades. This would be the second time. How fitting. But if you want more details about this deal, good luck getting them. Every time a reporter or citizen tries to get more details about this plan, they are told to be patient and that they will know later on: “It’s too early to share details of our plans”…“Details of what will be built at the Palo District were unclear…”City elected officials and staff remained tight-lipped about plans.” How comforting. Somehow, the mayor of Mesa claimed that this deal was “transparent” to residents…and he said this without laughing.
The city of Mesa has a bit of a bizarre past with sports venues and facilities. If you want an unbelievable read, go read about the hundreds of millions in taxpayer money spent in 2022 at a sports complex that went bankrupt due to fraud and many other issues. The Wall Street Journal did a good job covering that story.
In 2014, the city agreed to pay $84 million to build a new ballpark for the Chicago Cubs spring training. The Cubs have been training in Mesa since the early 1950s (yes, I know they were in Scottsdale for several years in between). The city then promised another $15 million for other infrastructure around the new ballpark. The city then agreed to cover all “costs for maintenance and capital improvements for 30 years.” The city certainly did spend a lot of money on the Cubs. Which makes it incredible how merely a few weeks before the Cubs agreed to this new deal, Mesa’s city government was forced to eliminate 343 jobs due to a $62 million revenue shortfall.
East Valley Tribune wrote an article about this topic and correctly noted that “throwing money at the Cubs for six weeks of baseball is a political hand grenade given the city’s financial problems.” CapTimes wondered how Arizona state legislators could help finance the Cubs new facility with a new sales tax, considering these same people just cut massive amounts of education dollars. They also stopped allowing many kids in the state to have access to proper health care.
You may be wondering if the Cubs were paying for anything. Yes, they would pay $130,000 every year to the city in rent. I do not agree with a lot of what the Goldwater Institute writes about, but they do have a point in wondering how on earth the city could justify giving over $100 million for rent payments totaling $4 million. When the Atlantic sat down with city officials who agreed to this deal, one city official claimed that by hosting the Cubs’ spring training, the city was able to get bonus benefits because some Cubs players may “inevitably purchase homes in the area.” Excuse me? Where does this fun fact come from? The city official had no evidence of this. Why would he? It is an idiotic claim.
Even if we looked at years in which there were a record number of people visiting the area for spring training games, the amount of revenue that goes to Mesa is and has always been much lower than people realize. Let’s set aside the fact that prices for spring training games continue to be “ridiculously high.” Like paying almost $75 to park daily for a spring training game?
In 2000, the state of Arizona expected to receive revenues from the Cactus League totaling $403 million over the next 30 years. Fast forward a bit, and we need to reduce those expectations by $163 million. When the Arizona Republic got possession of financial records on the spring training ballparks in 2013, the newspaper found that 8 of the 9 spring training centers were losing money every year. The combined deficit was more than $10 million every year and counting.
