I’m ok with using this tax money for a stadium, since it is the kind of thing this tax is meant for. What I’m not ok with is the soccer team owner claiming that the tax will pay for itself. Sports team owners make that claim to justify public money and as far as I know there hasn’t been a single instance of this ever happening. I think we should be honest about what this project would be: tax payers subsidizing a stadium, not an economic boon to the community. It’s the lying that really bugs me.
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No worries dude. You’re not wrong to support it. It’s just a difference of opinion. Even though we’ve never met I know you’re very passionate about a downtown stadium and you’re willing to spend tax money on it. Some of us just don’t feel that way and nobody’s wrong or right.
Like I’ve said before, what bugs me is the claim that the stadium will be a positive benefit for taxpayers. All the studies I’ve ever seen, from very right wing to very left wing economists have shown these things are net losses for tax revenue (i.e. whatever new tax revenue they generate is less than the tax dollars they started with). It’s important that everyone understands that so we can make informed opinions. However, it does really bug me that Malik said he wasn’t going to seek public money and now he’s asking for $300M. That feels like an old fashioned bait and switch.
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Thanks Steve ! As you can probably tell , baseball is my passion but I believe that MLS might just happen . Who knows , maybe down the road , Raleigh may get independent baseball . Chicago already has a team , Dallas & Milwaukee will soon have teams .
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If you are going “to be honest” then don’t paint the picture as if you and I are paying for the stadium. It is a “hotel occupancy tax” that provides the revenue to fund projects like a stadium that in turn generate more hotel occupancy dollars from out of town visitors who come to Raleigh to the events being held at the stadium.
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Well, that’s not strictly true. Most of the tax revenue is actually from prepared food and beverage not the occupancy tax. Obviously some of that food and beverage would be from out of towners, but a significant percentage of the food and beverage revenue is from Wake residents. I agree that we should not claim all the revenue is from Wake residents, but we also shouldn’t claim that the tax revenues generated by a new stadium would be self-financing.
http://www.wakegov.com/roomfoodtax/Documents/Stakeholder%20Review/Phase%20II/3-9-2017%20Stakeholders%20Mtg/March%209%202017%20Meeting%20Material%20Combined%20Packet.pdf
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In my opinion, any venue that leverages tax revenues of any kind needs to be considered as multi-purpose as possible to get my support. There’s no scenario in which a future stadium should be publicly funded and kept exclusive to one purpose only. @rgmedd makes good suggestions about other events that could happen there, and those ideas should only be expanded. I’d even like to see the stadium convertible to American football for state high school championship games. As for concerts, having such a facility that could host them should be considered because eventually RedHat goes away.
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to be Honest, I’m not sure what to say, I feel kind of discourage in a way, so much red tape glued to my mouth I guess, I often wonder if this will ever become a reality, at some point I’m sure. If they want MLS here in Raleigh, use private money to build it.
Greed will win here. We likely won’t get a MLS spot because of money.
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funny, I was thinking that too.
I don’t think Raleigh will make it in this time around. We may even be outbid within the state. The rumours circulating around the Charlotte development community are that new Panthers’ owner David Tepper is very interested in bringing MLS to Charlotte (he’s publicly stated this) and that the league is enthusiastic about him as an owner, because of his ability to get things done. If Tepper can get local political support behind his plan there’s a very real chance the league will expand there.
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And yet Charlotte still has 0 major league championships to Raleigh’s 1.
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Great article, thank you! And 25 months later…
Where are we? I mean, negotiations specifically between the Hurricanes and PNC arena? Any thoughts?
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Yes , A lot of thoughts ! We need & should have a downtown sports arena !
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Amen! I second your thoughts!!! 
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Last Sunday I got a surprise phone call from a city leader . He is discussing with some city leaders a
sports stadium for downtown . He said that he is very concern that our downtown might again be
like it was when Fayetteville St. was a mall because in the future all the now downtown events were going to be at Dix Park . I gave him all my appreciation for thinking like this .
We are NOT an event-driven downtown anymore. This city leader needs to update their perception of downtown. I would be happy to try and convince them otherwise of this.
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Leo , I honestly don’t agree with you on this . I agree with this leader . When I went to the bluegrass festival , I was so impress with how full the downtown hotels , restaurants , etc. were .
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Oh well yeah, IBMA and larger events are still welcome and fill downtown with life. However, compared to the dead days of the Fayetteville Street mall, we have some great organic and natural nightlife and daytime activity on the weekends, plus a larger office base that creates that economic activity. There is no dire need for a huge influx of events needed for downtown at this time, IMO.
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I think Leo’s point is that downtown isn’t dependent upon events to get people down there any more and that’s 100% the case. I was in the warehouse district last night and it was packed on a random Thursday in February. This would have never happened in any part of downtown even 3 or 4 years ago.
While the big events are great, downtown can stand up just fine on its own to feet thanks to the restaurants, bars, breweries etc and the skyrocketing downtown population.
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