Zygi Wilf and his Minnesota Vikings want enough public money to cover the principal and interest for an $870 million loan to build a new, posh stadium. That's $42 million a year for 30 years.
Which, as Marty says, is a $64 subsidy per seat per game for the next 30 years.
With ticket prices that range from $105 to $845 per seat in the current stadium (and that's just to see them play the Cowboys, not even a team like Green Bay, and not including the likely bump in ticket prices we'll see in the fancy new stadium), I'd say adding $64 to the ticket price might not even be noticed by the average fan. The reason for the high subsidy per seat: There are only 10 home games per season. That's $2.9 million dollars per game, people -- just to cover the $870 million in principal!
Contrast that figure with 81 home games for the Minnesota Twins (playing in a just-opened 39,504-seat stadium, built with $392 million of public financing.) They're getting subsidized $4.08 per seat per game over 30 years. (Based on selling out all the seats every game... unlikely, given the Twins' history.)
Or the Guthrie Theater (opened a few years ago with three stages totaling 2,000 seats), built with $25 million in taxpayer support. Their most recent year recorded 463,412 theater-goers, subsidized $1.80 per seat per show over 30 years.
Of course, there are arguments to be made about other economic effects of a large construction project like the Vikings stadium, and longer-term economic benefits to the area surrounding it. Not to mention the threatened loss of the Vikings to some other city that builds them a stadium (which would leave the Twin Cities as nothing but, as some have put it, "A cold Omaha").
But $64 per seat per game. For 30 years?
That's a hard argument to make.
Sources: Minnesota Twins 2010 schedule, Wikipedia entries on Target Field and Guthrie Theater, Guthrie Theater 2008-2009 annual report
I absolutely agree. And I don't think 10 home games are enough to bring huge economic benefits to restaurants and bars in the area, either. This is a great comparison and a very handy figure to know about. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDelete