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From Business First of Columbus:
Nationwide Arena sale under discussion
by Jeff BellThe Columbus Blue Jackets are leading discussions about the possible sale of Nationwide Arena to Franklin County, using higher taxes on alcohol and cigarettes to help fund the deal.
Preliminary talks have been held between Blue Jackets and Franklin County officials, state legislators and Nationwide Insurance executives over helping the National Hockey League club solve its economic problems, Columbus Business First has learned. One option under discussion calls for the county to buy the 18,000-seat arena from Nationwide so the team can work toward getting a better lease.
It’s the new Change everyone wanted.
Have the government bail/buy you out.
Everyone is doing it!
Don’t worry where the money is coming, its……ooooo look, shiny tin foil, I mean Chinese water dog….what were we talking about?
Oh yeah, Change
Change is good
Attention Sinners!
Another Golden Parachute!
As a downtown restaurant owner who would be subsidizing this, I am not real fond of paying an additional tax and/or charging our customers an additional tax to consume their favorite beverages to support a mediocre hockey team and one of the largest insurance companies in the nation. It is not our fault Nationwide has lost $80 million over the past few years. Welcome to the recession Nationwide… We are all feeling it. Do what we do, cut costs, restructure, increase value for your customers..cut the salaries of the leadership who is failing you. etc. etc. This is called failure to succeed…you already received a 99 year tax abatement…your short changing your own public school system and now you want tax payers to bail you out. I say let the Jackets Go, foreclose on Nationwide Arena and get a real major league sport and organization that has the proper resources to operate and one that is truly centered around developing our city and our downtown. Start using public funds to create incentives for small businesses and stop providing golden parachutes for these big corporations and most importantly to our public officials quit letting them spook you because when they leverage you, you leverage us. This is a modern arena and we could attract NBA and NHL without a public bailout. Please write our county commissioners and express your disgust for this proposal.
Please post your letters all over the web and cc them to info@due-amici.com or marketing@barriotapas.com. Best comment will receive discounts and free items from Due Amici and Barrio!
Ahh, takes me back to microeconomics class in grad school. Raising taxes on cigarettes/booze is definitely not a zero sum game. Demand for those products is highly inelastic. If the County moves forward with this, they will develop a study to determine how much they need to increase the cost per pack/bottle in order to maximize revenue. If they raise the price too much, yes, then too many people will quit and it might end up being a “zero sum game”. But these types of taxing decisions are not made willy nilly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand
Getting the county involved is a bad idea. Nationwide and the Blue Jackets should work this out. Nationwide has plenty to lose if they leave, so giving them a better rental agreement would benefit them as well. I’m not 100% against Huntington since the county built and operates it, but to get mixed up in Nationwide Arena after the fact because the Jackets can’t run a profit isn’t kosher. The public should almost never subsidize sports franchises or arenas. There are close to no circumstances under which it makes financial sense.
With regard to taxes on cigarettes and alcohol and whatnot, joev is right. The public health costs are huge and far outweigh the taxes. Taxing so much that there are black markets is overkill and counterproductive. Short of that, sin taxes are rarely too high.
As long as they change the name to Arena Franklin and play Chain of Fools 24-7, I’m behind this.
Why would the county want to own a building where “revenue from events isn’t covering operating costs?” This is a horrible, horrible idea.
Like it or not, arena plan needs to be considered
Saturday, May 30, 2009 3:07 AM
BY BOB HUNTER
Team officials say the Blue Jackets have lost $80 million the past seven years and that their lease with Nationwide Arena is a big cause of that. Are we really prepared to let this continue and eventually see the team move to Kansas City? And if it did, what kind of economic impact would that have on the city? How would it affect restaurants, hotels, bars, stores, etc., and those who work there? What would happen to the Arena District if the arena didn’t have a major tenant?
READ MORE
I think it’s arguably a conflict of interest for Bob Hunter, or anyone from the Dispatch, to be promoting this idea that would directly benefit their company as partial owners of the arena.
I don’t want to lose the Blue Jackets, but I have no faith that the county can make money on the arena where Nationwide/The Dispatch have failed (unless they can possibly buy it at a bargain basement price). Should Franklin County really subsidize the team more than $10 Million per year ($80 M over the last seven years)? Still sounds like a bad idea to me.
I’m with johnwirtz. The economic impact to the city wouldn’t actually be that bad if they left. I don’t want to lose them, either, but we’d get through it just fine. No city really loses economic activity when a sports team leaves—it only has neighborhood effects, not city-wide effects. This is the downside of relying on a sports venue/team for any kind of city planning. They might pick up and leave any time. Plus, if we subsidize now, where does it end? What if we buy the arena and it continues to lose money? At what point do we say enough is enough? I’d prefer to just save the money and not go down that road at all.
I still think Nationwide and the Blue Jackets can and should work it out. I just think they don’t want to because they’d rather get saved by the county. Especially right now, the county should put its foot down.
Hey all… I was just invited to a blogger/media panel with Greg Kirstein (Senior VP of the Blue Jackets) to listen and discuss this issue.
Do you all have questions for me to ask? Anything you’d like to hear straight from the horse’s mouth? ;)
Ask them why public money should get involved. Nationwide built the arena and the Jackets signed the lease. Doesn’t it seem to him that the government has nothing to do with it.
If you really wanna risk annoying him—and I’m not saying you should—try asking why we don’t just try to buy part of the team instead of the arena. Seems just as appropriate, if not more so.
Commissioners Oppose Sin-Tax Hike For Arena
By CANDICE LEE
Published: June 2, 2009
The owners of the money-losing Columbus Blue Jackets want a tax increase on beer, wine, liquor and cigarettes to underwrite a county takeover of the arena where they play, defying the will of local voters who repeatedly rejected public financing of the center.
READ MORE
Today Business First reports that the Jackets have nixed the SIn Tax idea.
The Blue Jackets have been leading discussions on a plan in which the state would grant Franklin County commissioners the authority to impose or put on the ballot an increase in alcohol and tobacco sales. Money from those additional “sin taxes†would be used to finance a county purchase of the arena, which is owned by a partnership between Nationwide Arena and Dispatch Printing Co.
The commissioners said they are against imposing such a tax and need more information from the Blue Jackets on what exactly is being proposed.