The Great Stadium Debate continues . . .

[E.T.]

Who Really Wins?

By BAIRD HELGESON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Dec 17, 2006

TAMPA - Malcolm Glazer will likely be among the big financial winners next month when monster truck fans pack Raymond James Stadium for a car-crushing spectacle.

The Buccaneers' owner gets all stadium profit for every event in the eight-year-old facility, whether it's a home game for the University of South Florida Bulls, the recent Kenny Chesney concert or a monster truck exhibition.

The deal is even more lucrative when the Bucs play at home. Glazer gets all the revenue from parking, concessions, merchandising and ticket sales. He also owns the naming rights to the stadium and controls all permanent advertising in the facility.

The taxpayers built the $168 million stadium, but nobody profits from its operation more than Glazer, thanks in part to a stadium deal considered to be among the most profitable in the National Football League.

Now the Bucs are expected to ask for $12 million in taxpayer money to build an indoor practice field next to the team's new training facility. The practice field would allow the team to work out inside during foul weather and would include artificial turf, possibly giving them an edge when practicing for games in domed stadiums, the team has said.

"It's kind of a bizarre request," said David Berri, a sports business expert who teaches economics at California State University, Bakersfield. "What, do you have bad weather in Tampa?"

The request has some local officials, fans and sports business experts asking: Haven't taxpayers done enough for the Bucs?

Some fans and people who run the stadium say the community hasn't healed from the divisive effort to build the facility for an out-of-town billionaire who threatened to move the team unless taxpayers built a stadium. Even some of the Bucs' biggest fans are irritated by Glazer's favorable lease, which doesn't include a rent increase for 30 years and puts taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars in stadium maintenance and repairs.

Nikki Garcia, a server at Barnacles Restaurant in Brandon, said she appreciates having the Bucs in Tampa, "but I think we've done enough for the team."

Garcia's feelings are shared by some county commissioners and those who run the cash-strapped stadium.

"It's a difficult contract to live with," said Bob Buckhorn, a board member with the Tampa Sports Authority, which runs the stadium. "Could it have been more fair? Sure. But it is what it is."

The Deal

Glazer, a real estate mogul from Palm Beach, has transformed the Buccaneers from the league's bottom-dwelling embarrassment into one of the NFL's most profitable teams.

The franchise is worth $955 million, up more than $600 million since 1998, according to Forbes magazine, which surveys team owners. That makes the Bucs the eighth-most-valuable team in the league, ahead of franchises in bigger metro areas such as Chicago and New York.

The magazine cites "the team's generous lease" as a chief reason for Glazer's good fortune. The magazine lists the stadium - even though the Bucs don't own it - as an asset because the team didn't borrow money to build it. Teams that built their own stadiums usually take on huge debt, siphoning away money that could be used for marketing or player salaries.

Eric Land, the Bucs' chief operating officer, disputed any attempt to connect the value of the stadium to the team's bottom line.

"One doesn't have anything to do with the other," he said.

The team does not release its financial information. Officials with the sports authority don't know how much money the team makes from the facility.

The Bucs' annual revenue is about $203 million, according to Forbes. The team's revenue was $77 million in 1998.

Glazer hoped to duplicate his success when he bought the world's most valuable sports franchise last year, the Manchester United soccer team in England. The $1.5 billion purchase outraged soccer fans who loathed the idea of an American owner and feared he would endanger the team with the enormous debt required for the deal.

Glazer didn't create nearly the stir when he bought the Buccaneers in 1995. Glazer paid a record $192 million for the team, which surprised experts and fans. The Bucs had the worst record in the NFL and were best known for their garish orange jerseys and miserable 0-26 start in the league.

He decided the best way to finance the deal was to build a new stadium with lucrative suites and other revenue-generating amenities.

Initially, Glazer offered to pay for half the stadium if the community paid deposits on 50,000 seats, which gave them the right to buy season tickets. The deal collapsed when fans bought fewer than 35,000.

Glazer then turned to what has become a common play in pro sports: He threatened to move the team. Glazer and his three sons, who run the day-to-day operations of the team, looked in Los Angeles and Orlando.

As the Glazers crisscrossed the country, fans, politicians and community leaders in Tampa rallied to keep the team.

Local politicians had watched other cities lose pro teams only to spend millions to get a new franchise, more than a new stadium would cost.

The community's last hope for keeping the team came in the form of the Community Investment Tax, a proposed half-percent sales tax. To make it palatable to voters, the deal called for only a fraction of the revenue to be used for a new stadium. Most of the $2.7 billion collected in 30 years would go for roads, schools and other public works projects.

Voters approved the tax in September 1996, and two years later Glazer got a new stadium without having to spend a dollar.

"Right now in the NFL, teams can get about anything they want from a city, or they will find another town that will give it to them," said Rodney Fort, a sports business expert who teaches at Washington State University in Pullman. "The Bucs are proof of that."

Glazer's biggest financial coup might be the 91-page stadium agreement with the Tampa Sports Authority, which also runs three public golf courses. The Bucs pay $3.5 million in rent to the authority each year and about $1.9 million annually from surcharges collected on tickets.

By comparison, Forbes pegs the Bucs' annual revenue from ticket sales at $55 million.

The Bucs' rent doesn't cover the cost of operating the stadium. The sports authority runs a deficit of about $3 million a year. The county pays about $2 million, and the city pays $1 million.

The deficit comes largely from the increased costs of maintenance and repairs but also from property tax payments. Hillsborough County took ownership of the stadium from the sports authority in 2003 to spare the facility from a $5 million-a-year tax bill. The change came after the Florida Supreme Court ruled that similar publicly owned sports facilities could be taxed. The sports authority now pays about $575,000 a year in taxes, primarily for land it leases from the airport.

Benefits Without Ownership

The Bucs make a healthy profit when the team plays at home, but money continues to pour in when the 65,657-seat stadium hosts other events.

The Bucs get the first $2 million of profit from parking and concessions at nonteam events each year, such as concerts and USF games. The Bucs also get a cut of the profit from merchandise sold at these events, whether it's a USF jersey or a T-shirt from a monster truck event.

The Bucs and the sports authority split profit that exceeds $2 million.

Since the stadium opened in 1998, profit from these events has never reached $2 million, usually hovering around $1.5 million. This year was the closest, with profit from non-Bucs events tipping $1.9 million, thanks in part to country star Kenny Chesney's concert in July.

"The Bucs negotiated a good deal," said Mark Proctor, chairman of the sports authority's board. "But I don't think we needed to give them everything that they got."

The Bucs also have naming rights to the stadium, which were sold to Raymond James Financial for $32.5 million over 13 years. In April, both sides extended the deal through 2015.

The agreement also gave the Bucs the right to sell 195 luxury suites, and the team controls all permanent advertising at the building.

The Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV, Channel 8, both owned by Media General, have a paid partnership with the Bucs. WFLA and the Tribune spend a combined $2 million a year for two luxury suites and exclusive advertising rights at the stadium.

As part of the deal, the Tribune and WFLA partner with the Bucs for promotions. A separate deal gives WFLA exclusive production and broadcast rights for the Bucs' preseason games.

"The Bucs have one of the most lucrative stadium deals in the nation, which accounts for the team's very high market value," said Mark Rosentraub, an economist and author of "Major League Losers: The Real Costs of Sports and Who's Paying for It." He said the Bucs' high value is a testament to Glazer's financial acumen, considering the Tampa Bay area is among the NFL's smallest markets.

So why do communities use tax dollars to build stadiums?

Sports business experts say communities are caught between the desire to be seen as major economic and cultural hubs and the NFL's tactical decision to have fewer teams than cities eager to host them.

"Having a pro team is more of a reflection of the economic maturity of the area," Fort said. "It says, 'We've made it.' And having a team can be a source of great community pride."

That was largely the case in Tampa.

"If you are going to play in the big leagues, then you have to play. We decided to play," Buckhorn said. "And you know, we won a Super Bowl, and we got the Super Bowl. We kept the team. So we move on."

Team officials argue that Bay area residents have reaped countless benefits since Raymond James Stadium was built.

National recognition of the Bucs has helped turn the area into a major draw for businesses, residents and visitors, Land said.

The stadium's first-class fan experience will attract future Super Bowls to the area, creating a worldwide stage to showcase the Bay area, Land said. Tampa has hosted one Super Bowl since the stadium was built and will host it again in 2009. It is unclear how much the Bucs make when a Super Bowl comes to town.

"I don't think you can put a value on all that," Land said.

Practice Field

It's no surprise that the Bucs would seek millions of tax dollars to build the indoor practice field.

The original stadium agreement required that $12 million be set aside to build the team a training facility.

But the Bucs spent their own money to build a 145,000-square-foot practice facility, complete with three outdoor practice fields, a theater to watch game film and a 10,000-square-foot weight room. Some at the sports authority estimate the facility is worth $50 million.

Under the stadium agreement, the Bucs must give the facility to the sports authority to collect the $12 million.

Instead, the Bucs would rather keep the facility and use the $12 million to build an additional indoor practice field, which would be open to the public. Any money left over would be used for stadium improvements.

Bucs officials are expected to unveil their plans for the indoor practice facility after Jan 1. The authority's attorney, John Van Voris, said the Bucs' proposal would require the Tampa City Council and the Hillsborough County Commission to amend the stadium agreement to allow the deal.

Some county commissioners have spoken against using taxpayer money to build the practice field, saying the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Sports business experts said Tampa officials have a strong case for saying no. Glazer, after all, is the only one who profits from the practice field.

Berri, the sports business expert, doesn't think taxpayers should invest in trying to make the team better. "You've already given them a stadium," he said of the 3-10 Bucs. "If that doesn't make them better, nothing will."

For many fans, it boils down to this: They don't like using their money to help a billionaire get richer.

In Brandon, Barnacles is the epicenter of Bucs fandom on game day.

Patrons sip Budweiser and eat spicy chicken wings while they watch one of the 460 televisions.

"Malcolm Glazer should foot the bill. He's got more than enough money," said Jeff Field, 45, a home builder from New Tampa. "They don't need our financing for that."

Not everyone is opposed.

"It can get hot during practice, and they need" the air conditioning, said Terrie Scott, 44, of Valrico. "That way, they can simulate the crowd noise in those stadiums. If it will help the team play in different climates, then I am for it."

Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668 or bhelgeson@tampatrib.com.

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This is largely the reason I stopped supporting NFL teams ...

[Bull Matrix]

ON CAMPUS STADIUM DEBATE WILL CONTINUE!!!!!

[CoolBull1]

[highlight]This is largely the reason I stopped supporting NFL teams ... [/highlight]

I, along with many others, share your feelings.  Until there are fundamental changes in the NFL and NBA (not gonna happen) I will support only college sports with my wallet and my butt in the seat.

[E.T.]

ON CAMPUS STADIUM DEBATE WILL CONTINUE!!!!!

There is no debate here ... we do not have funds to build a stadium. How can you debate it? Might as well debate why we didn't get in the BCS Title Game. . .

[Bull Matrix]

You cant debate to change the deal that the Glazers have.

[bwsdj]

Malcolm has a sweet Deal, buy a football team, let the taxpayers foot the bill for everything you need, And Then make money on every Event that goes on there(BULLS Games,ETC>>).  I think Glazer should pay for his own indoor practice field.

[E.T.]

Good Point, but County residents can push for a change.

[bwsdj]

Hopefully the County taxpayers will SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, 12 Million is a Drop in the Bucket For Glazer

[TampaTower]

How many NFL teams get this kind of treatment?

[E.T.]

If residents send a letter to each commish and tell them they will be voted off, it could bring change.