Abe Pollin wants more

(The title is inspired by the Sisters of Mercy song, "More.")

Saturday's Washington Post reports that Abe Pollin wants $50 million to upgrade the luxury boxes and do some other stuff at the Verizon Center. See "Pollin Asks D.C. to Pay for Verizon Center Renovations."

With the hugely expensive baseball stadium under construction, and with all this talk of public funding for a soccer stadium, along with the absolutely insane talk about trying to attract the Washington Redskins football team back to DC, I am sure Mr. Pollin, who spent $220 million of his own money to build his arena, is feeling unloved.

From the article:

Wizards owner Abe Pollin, who built the $220 million sports arena with his own money in Chinatown nearly a decade ago, wants the extra money to upgrade all or some of its 110 luxury suites and replace its outdated scoreboard, District officials said. Those and other improvements would be designed to attract special events, such as championship basketball and hockey games.

Pollin's company argues that the city should give the arena a financial boost as a reward for its role as a catalyst of the downtown renaissance, city officials said. The 20,674-seat Verizon Center has served as the anchor of the Chinatown area's revival, a transformation into a bustling hub for restaurants and night life.

As people know, I argue that while the Verizon Center truly contributes to the vibrance of the Gallery Place area, and it is an anchor, it is not the sole or only cause for the positive changes.

We need an independent authority, comparable to New York City's NY Independent Budget Office or the late lamented Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, that "pro-science" then Speaker Newt Gingrinch didn't see fit to fund, to provide a fair and transparent evaluation of the costs and benefits of such investments, the kind of evaluation that the city doesn't provide when considering such projects.

Peter Angelos has a clause in his contract with the Maryland Stadium Authority that anything that the football team gets in the way of stadium upgrades, that the Authority has to provide the same upgrade to the Camden Yards stadium.

This never ends. The city opened up the treasure chest of public financing of sports facilities with baseball stadium, and now perhaps, we are doomed to continue funding other similar projects forever.

Colbert King, the Saturday columnist who most often writes about DC issues, covers this broad issue, focusing on talk and plans for funding a soccer stadium, in the piece, "Another Bite Out of D.C.'s Hide?"

King writes:

Victor B. MacFarlane, the majority owner of D.C. United's operating rights, said at a news conference, "We would love to help make soccer the sport that African Americans and other children of color first look to for recreation and entertainment." Toward that end, MacFarlane, himself African American, pledged to build a youth soccer field in Ward 8, which is home to D.C. Council member and former mayor Marion Barry. MacFarlane speaks from the heart, I am sure. But I wouldn't be surprised if development rights to that juicy piece of land surrounding the proposed stadium didn't also draw the team owners to the deal.

Here's how the project might develop: The city would prepare the tract's infrastructure (worth millions of dollars) and turn it over to the MacFarlane group. The developers, in turn, would build the stadium and an adjacent complex with a hotel, shops, offices and condos, recouping their investment with the profits that would flow from such a worthy civic endeavor. The District would tell taxpayers they have never had it so good, because tax dollars from the complex will flow into city coffers. That, city officials will say, represents a win-win outcome for the District and D.C. United's owners.

Oh, yes, the new soccer stadium and development rights could be awarded to MacFarlane without competitive bidding.

Green for the owners.


Green for the citizens and city coffers.

... are more likely colored by the same sentiment that put Andrew Young and Robert Johnson in bed with Wal-Mart.