Build it and even if they don’t come, you’ll be paying for it forever, not us.

The New York Times reports today, in “Stadium Boom Deepens Municipal Woes,  (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/sports/25stadium.html?ref=business) that taxpayers are being asked to cough up money to cover shortfalls from the boom in taxpayer-financed stadium construction over the past decade.

Reports the Times’ Ken Belson,

From New Jersey to Ohio to Arizona, the stadiums were sold as a key to redevelopment and as the only way to retain sports franchises. But the deals that were used to persuade taxpayers to finance their construction have in many cases backfired, the result of overly optimistic revenue assumptions and the recession.

These stadia were sold to taxpayers as an economic savior. Companies won’t relocate their headquarters to a town that doesn’t have a great social life, citizens were told. We have to have a sports franchise or people won’t set up shop here. As Dr. Phil would say, “How’s that working for you?” Not very well, it seems.

It will come as no surprise to readers of stadium bond analyses by S&P over the 1990s that the chickens are coming home to roost in cities that cut sweetheart deals to keep pro sports teams in town by paying for stadia that the teams demanded.

S&P took a high profile at the time, making its analysts available to comment on muni sports bond issues, and they all but predicted the current collapse of municipal sports bond issues – but then the media access was cut off by worried S&P execs who, apparently getting heat from municipal clients about the negative assessments of bond issues for sports teams,  wanted to keep rating the deals (and presumably getting the fees for those deals).

In S&P’s estimation at the time, football stadiums generate little incidental revenue for towns other than hot dog and beer sales, since there are only 8 or 9 games a year. Baseball is only marginally better, even though there are about 70 games.

Cities shouted down critics of these sub-prime financial deals for years, branding them anti-business and traitors to the sports fans.

Now cities and their taxpayers are surprised that they are stuck with all the debt and the teams don't care?

In case you don’t understand how tone deaf sports teams can be, remember that the Philadelphia Eagles players just gave Michael Vick an award for “courage.”