Next stop?

We wonder whether someone can tell us where the next opinion change will land Mr. Mark Rosentraub.

Once he was a sports economics expert writing that professional sports are a less than significant impact in a city because they relocate spending rather than add to it.

Now he is a "sports business author" reversing his field with all the skill of a million dollar running back in the NFL. He currently tells us, "Where spending occurs matters as much as if spending occurs." (Our emphasis.)

A big front page article in this week’s IBJ tells us, with substantial quotes from Rosentraub, that a cancellation of the professional basketball season will be a financial disaster for the city, to say nothing of loss of the team. We’d like to see some facts rather than fancy.

While the article is about the possible cancellation of a season, Rosentraub is quoted as saying, "I guess it’s a case of being careful what you wish for." (This reference is to the possible loss of the basketball team.) Or is it really a case of being careful what you put in print?

The Pacers use Conseco Fieldhouse for 45 games, about 12% of the year. We are not told how many other events are held there. How many dollars do these generate? There is no estimate about what revenues similar events would bring the city if they were not diverted directly to the Pacers. Nor are we told how many events are rejected because of Pacer usage of the facility.

Rosentraub tells us a fieldhouse is doing three important things; providing service-sector jobs in a central location, reducing energy use by keeping jobs centrally located and keeping money flowing into Center Township.

(The first two seem to negate any need to improve IndyGo!) Does the energy saving offset extra pollution of people driving downtown? Considering the volume of downtown tax revenue being sacrificed on the altar of "economic development," including professional sports subsidy, why is the rest of the county responsible for financing the basketball team?

What will the expert’s reasoning be next year?

Comments

[Vox Populi]

I can't recall the source but this definition of an expert may be applicable, "an expert is anyone who is more than five miles away from home".

Why the puff piece in the IBJ about the city losing money if the NBA season is cancelled? Aren't we already losing money? We built Conseco, not the Pacers. The Pacers get all of the revenue from Conseco, from all events and we pay them 33.5 million for maintenance for the next three years.

Of course, if the "we" is the downtown interests, restaurants, bars, parking etc. they may lose a few bucks short term but then again they aren't the group who are paying for them to play either.

[Fred McCarthy]

Heard from a friend who agrees with Rosentraub about WHERE money is spent. Only trouble is, his business is in Broad Ripple!

Fred McCarthy

[J. England]

are taxes paid on Conseco fieldhouse? If so is this the normal rate or some sort of "discount" rate? If no fieldhouse was built would another owner pay the normal tax rate? It has been my impression that Center Township is filled with no tax or low tax facilities that actually service people from all across Central Indiana. The only people paying "full price" for taxes are poor, often black and minority, taxpayers who are unlikely or unable to go to high priced venues. Perhaps now that Carmel is becoming the Potsdam of Indiana we can start shutting down these facilities and moving them to I-465 and Carmel, near the Peoples Palace of Culture.

[Fred McCarthy]

Conseco Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium are both owned by governmental agencies. Together they represent about a billion dollars of real estate and improvements that are not on the assessment rolls.