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The Chester Soccer Stadium: portrait of a boondoggle
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
The Chester Soccer Stadium: portrait of a boondoggle
Exactly one year ago, we reported the CP's findings that the construction of the $150M Chester Soccer Stadium, which hosts the Philadelphia Union and was funded mostly through various streams of taxpayer dollars – raised a few questions.
While that public money had been secured with promises of an ancillary "mixed-use" development – with which most of the anticipated jobs and economic benefits were associated – it turned out that almost every penny of taxpayer support was going directly to the stadium instead, which promised few jobs and whose owners keep all ticket and concession revenues.
In fact, CP's investigation found that developers (and part-owners) Buccini / Pollin Group hadn't so much as begun preliminary work, like environmental reports, on the "mixed-use" development, and that serious contamination of the land reserved for it made the possibility that it would ever be built seem slimmer still.
Now comes a new revelation: the Delaware County Council has approved a tax hike for hotels to help pay for the $30M the county spent on the project – money that was supposed to come entirely from gambling revenues at Harrah's Chester.
It's an interesting move, especially since Buccini / Pollin Group president Mike Hare had assured this reporter last year that his company would be required to pay back that money if the mixed-use development wasn't built – which, of course, it hasn't been.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly City Paper, Philly News Now. Philly News Now said: The Chester Soccer Stadium: portrait of a boondoggle: Exactly one year ago, we reported the CP's findings that t... http://bit.ly/9piRol [...]
Is this a surprise? Radio Times debated the issue of publicly funded stadiums before this one was built. I mostly recall the pro-stadium guy saying that stadiums cannot be built without taxpayer money (something like that). And that sounded like an acknowledgment that stadiums themselves are not self-sustaining, cannot be supported by the activities which are their focus and purpose for being there. But they carry on, no problem. In the end, a great deal of money is made by private interests, at public expense. It's not the first time this has happened, like for example several times in Phila. But the issue of stadiums as boondoggles has been noticed, has been studied, has been documented. The Olympics have been creating these burdens for local communities around the world. The Canadians are now stuck with a big bill over the Winter Olympics. The subway system in Greece was developed in part for their Olympics and it's now cited as a major pressure in the collapse of their economy, years after the games. The World Cup in South Africa prompted stadium construction with serious controversies. So the real surprise in Chester would have been for the stadium to not be a boondoggle.
[...] continues to seek answers about the public money that was allocated to PPL Park. Apparently that money was supposed to go to [...]
This is absolutely awful!!!! Millions spend on building on and off ramps to make easy access for the out of towners to get to and from the stadium, now the stadium keeps all revenue with minimal jobs to offer? I read in the Chester Spirit that The City of Chester charges the stadium a little less than $3000.00 (for the use of a lot located on Highland Ave.) for each event that takes place at the stdium but guess what???? The stadium charges $15.00 to park and the lot can hold up tp 900 cars. Seems like the Chester City Mayor,Officials, Board and Council members do not have a clue and not searching for one. They are clearly not up to par with their negotiating skills. Did they even consider what the City and it's Residents could benefit from? One would think that they would have learned from the promises Harrahs made and has not lived up to, well this is obvious proof they have not learned anything.
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