MPR: Coleman to MLB: Change Your Ways

A Lost Cause?
By Michael Khoo
June 28, 1999

Organizers of a petition drive in St. Paul say they have more than twice as many signatures as necessary to put a new ballpark-funding question on the ballot this fall. But many questions still surround the subject, including the finances of Major League Baseball and the viability of small-market teams like the Minnesota Twins. Mayor Norm Coleman, who is spearheading the stadium push in St. Paul, says without some reform in professional baseball, building a ballpark doesn't make sense.

Andrew Zimbalist.

Hear the 12/6/95 edition of NPR's Talk of the Nation featuring Andrew Zimbalist on the baseball economy.

PLACING AN ITEM ON THE ST. PAUL BALLOT this November requires roughly 5,000 signatures. In less than two weeks, stadium proponents have gathered more than 10,000. Larry Dowell is the president of the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, the group funding the petition drive.

Dowell : The plan was always that we would have sufficient numbers of signatures so that it goes on the ballot without any question. So I think there's a confidence level that we're in good shape.

It seems certain Mayor Coleman's proposal will at least appear on the ballot. The plan calls for the city, the state, and the Twins to split the costs of a new ballpark in thirds, each paying approximately $100 million. St. Paul's share would be raised with a half-percentage point city-wide sales tax increase.

Opponents of the proposal argue public subsidies for a baseball stadium amount to corporate welfare - raising taxes to enrich Twins owner Carl Pohlad. Supporters say a downtown ballpark would spark economic activity and revitalize the urban core. But what everyone seems to agree on is that the finances of Major League Baseball are in disarray.

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Michael Khoo covers the stadium debate in St. Paul for Minnesota Public Radio. To provide feedback on this story, please email him at mkhoo@mpr.org.

Andrew Zimbalist is an economist at Smith College in Massachusetts. He says small markets such as the Twin Cities simply cannot generate the same revenue as their bigger rivals such as New York or Los Angeles. As a result, the Twins will remain at a competitive disadvantage.

Zimbalist: If there is a new stadium in a city like Minneapolis or St. Paul, probably the team can raise its net revenues somewhere on the order of $20 million. And that can make a dent in the disparities, but the disparities between the top teams and the bottom teams right now are probably somewhere on the order of $120 or $130 million. So whereas they can make a dent, they can't undo those disparities.

Zimbalist says the problem has grown to the point now that Major League Baseball is on the verge of being dysfunctional. Mayor Coleman has acknowledged small market teams face significant financial obstacles, and he has pledged to lobby baseball commissioner Bud Selig for reforms. Without some assurance of change, Coleman says there is no point in laying the first brick in a new stadium. But mayoral aide Eric Mische says Coleman has no concrete plan so far.

Mische : They have to make those changes, whatever those changes may be; it may be revenue sharing, it maybe some change in collective bargaining, we don't know what specifically what those are, but there has to be a commitment to recognize the problems of survivability of the small-market teams. But at the end of the day, if all of the work has been done here, Major League Baseball isn't committed to reforming itself, then it makes it very difficult to justify why we should move forward.

Professor Zimbalist says because baseball enjoys monopoly power, it is unlikely a single community or state can force any significant change in the league.

Zimbalist : Pennsylvania citizens might try to align with Minnesota citizens. And maybe they can also find some support in Connecticut these days. But in the end, they're just going to find four or five states and local areas to support something like this. And professional sports leagues have many lobbying efforts and many levers to pull to influence the way senators and members of congress vote on these things.

U.S. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is currently pushing legislation that would require Major League Baseball and the National Football League to contribute at least 50 percent to new stadium construction or renovation. But Zimbalist gives that effort no chance of success.

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