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Philadelphia Union
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 â raised a few questions.
While that public money had been secured with promises of an ancillary "mixed-use" development â with which most of the anticipated jobs and economic benefits were associated â 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 â 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 â 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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Who wouldn't envy the kind of press the Daily News and Inquirer have been giving the owners, builders, and supporters of Chester's new soccer stadium, which will house the Philadelphia Union?
The stadium hosted its first game this weekend, amid news that the city of Chester a largely poor, post-industrial city which famously lacks a single supermarket is under a state of emergency following a spate of homicides.
It seems the two newspapers just can't stop posing the question: Might the new stadium finally revive Chester?
The answer is: not likely and not just because stadiums almost never justify the large public subsidies they often wrangle from the hands of our elected officials, as Temple professor Kevin J. Delaney and Villanova professor and Rick Eckstein point out in their book, Public Dollars, Private Stadiums.
But also because the stadium's funding was secured largely by promises of further economic development a so-called "master plan development that would include commercial, business, and residential units that had little to no basis in reality, as I reported in my 2009 investigative piece, Steamrolled:
Though the vast majority of the benefits the Chester development is supposed to bring are associated with the mixed-use parcel, virtually all the public money allocated to the project is going straight to the construction of the stadium.
The state agencies awarding the millions appear, in some cases, to have failed or declined to ask basic questions about the economic benefits being promised.
Contamination on the site where the mixed-use development is to be built raises questions about whether delivering the promised amenities is even economically feasible.
And the very developers expected to build the mixed-use site the principals of the Wilmington-based Buccini/Pollin Group (BPG) are part-owners of the soccer team, providing a potential disincentive for them to allocate any of the public money toward anything but the stadium, from which they hope to profit.Will The Team deliver on its promises? Or has the public the city of Chester, in particular been duped?
A year later, the answer appears to be: yes. Chester still has no supermarket. And, as this paper found likely a year ago, the stadium is complete without any work or any signs of it taking place on the "master plan," which was supposed to have provided the most jobs and economic benefits to Chester.
Investigator Isaac, why not build a supermarket yourself?
Why does the first line of pieces written by Isaiah Thompson always run vertically (and illegibly) down the right side of the accompanying image? Is it just my browser?
[...] Thompson of Philadelphia’s CityPaper wonders why PPL Park is up and running while Chester hasn’t received any of the public money for economic [...]
[...] of the controversies surrounding the stadium built in neighboring Chester is that there were numerous promises made by [...]
My company worked on this project for 8 months. we were practically the last sub on the job & the last to get paid. we are still owed for work completed in June, July, August, September & November & have not received payment. We need teeth to get our money Please Help
So apparently Philadelphia Union's home opener against the D.C. United at the Linc on Saturday was amazing except for two things.
1. Joe Biden kicked the first ball or faked the first shin trauma or whatever you do to ceremonially start a soccer game. Yay for you, Joe. But thousands of fans were stuck outside due to heightened security, waiting in line to be metal detected, and chant "BULLSHIT" while missing the start of the game. Eye-witnesses figure at least half of the paying fans missed the first goal in team history. Rumor is that the team or somebody asked Biden to leave soon after the game started. Once the VP was out of the building they didn't just relax security, they threw open the gates, letting everybody in without even checking tickets. Of course, there were post-game apologies.
2. There was that ultimately meaningless goal (Philly still won) when Union goalie Chris Seitz appeared to just plain give the goal to D.C.'s Jaime Moreno to shoot into the net. Just like magically give it to him with nobody else around. Moreno kinda half-heartedly shot it into the gaping goal and then, as per soccer tradition, joined his teammates to jump around acting like they'd just done something really amazing and prolonged hug-worthy. Embarrassing for them. And for Seitz, because the goalie is the only one who can use his hands, so he should be the most competent guy out there. Picture a chimp taking on a flamingo. Anyway, the league now says, in retrospect, it's plainly obvious that Seitz was interfered with and the goal shouldn't have been allowed. Still funny though. Let's watch:
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[...] Heheheheh. Joe Biden kicked the first ball or faked the first shin trauma or whatever you do to ceremonially start a soccer game. Yay for you, Joe. But thousands of fans were stuck outside due to heightened security, waiting in line to be metal detected, and chant BULLSHIT while missing the start of the game. [...]
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| Photo | Philadelphia Union |
Not going to pretend to analyze last night's match between the brand-new Philadelphia Union (in their franchise debut) and second-year Seattle Sounders FC on what is apparently called the Xbox Pitch at Qwest Field in Seattle.
The game ended 2-nil, and with Philadelphia playing a man down thanks to Toni Ståhl's red card (the Union collected five in all!). From what my novice soccer-watching eyes told me, Philly a team that is, as reinforced ad nauseam by the announcers, very, very young played sloppy (granted, the field was soaked by a steady rain), and the score was only as close as it was thanks to a few blown chances by the Sounders.
Still, it was all kind of mesmerizing, and more than a little fascinating to watch this new crop of pro athletes repping the 215 (is Chester in the 215?), including:
- A guy named just "Fred"
- Congolese first-round (first overall) pick Danny Mwanga
- 17-year-old (first round, 7th overall) American Jack McInerney who allegedly has a "nose for goal."
- Frenchman and Sounders cast-off Sébastien Le Toux (pictured)
- Finnish card-collector, the aforementioned Ståhl
- Chris Seitz, our goalkeeper, who we traded for with Real Salt Lake (who'd "loaned" him to two USL teams last year)
- Cagey Venezuelan veteran and three-time MLS Cup winner Alejandro Moreno
The Union open their home schedule on April 10, not in Chester but at Lincoln Financial Field in South Philly. Tickets are still available and some are in a section with the following warning/enticement: "**THIS SECTION WILL BE STANDING/SINGING ENTIRE MATCH**"
Soccer is so weird.
See what I did there? Chester Philadelphia's entry in Major League Soccer, The Union, kick's off the league's schedule tonight in Seattle against Sounders FC and will be broadcast on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN360.com at 9:30 p.m. ET.
Are you watching? Are you pumped? Did you know that the players' union almost went on strike last week? (And did you know that the MLS Players Union head is named Bob Foose, which reminds us of foosball, which amuses us to no end?)
I know what you're thinking, but just because Isaiah Thompson wrote a cover story questioning the financing of the team's fancy new Chester stadium (PPL Park!) doesn't mean we can't get excited by The Beautiful Game. Home opener's on April 10 against DC United at Lincoln Financial Field. Are you going? Anyone know of bars having soccer specials?
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