According to all the hype, the city will also build them a new locker facility and offices, pay for custodial, heating, electric usage and security with taxpayer dollars, and not only allow alcohol but give the group the sole right to beer sales and admission receipts including some food concessions. What does Janesville get in return? Not much.
JG Excerpt:Let’s see here. A while back, the Janesville school district wanted to charge the semi-pro football team Gladiators $1,500 a game for Monterey Stadium during the summer (excluding security, insurance fees, etc.), so asking the hockey team for $1,500 a game for an indoor facility is more than reasonable. 30 games at $1,500 a pop is $45,000. But the city is asking only $40,000 from the hockey team and then giving it all back plus more.
The team would not cost the city money but wouldn't bring in much revenue, either, according to a memo from Levitt. City income for ice time, summer camps and building rental would be $40,000. But revenue from the Janesville Youth Hockey Association would drop by about $10,000, and the cost for custodians, utilities and security would total about $27,000.
You’re not getting $40,000 if you have to give up $10,000, but you’re actually giving up another $10,000 because if you had both (the Junior Team and Youth Hockey) the total would be $50,000. So the city is really getting only 20 by accepting the 40.
Considering the usual lack of clarity in Gazette articles, this one was nuanced just enough to keep residents ill-informed on many of the details in the plan. As of this writing, it's unclear who’s paying for the custodians, utilities and security. But it is described as a “cost” in the article. With that said we have to assume it’s at a cost to you and I…annually. Subtract $27,000 from the remaining $20,000 and we’re at a negative $7,000 before we turn the key. Even without that assumption, selling $27,000 in services for $27,000 returns a net gain of zero to the city. But it gets worse.
JG Excerpt:I can’t even begin to put a price on another participant-type activity taken away from Janesville youth, and the Gazette did not elaborate as to how much revenue the city takes in, but no matter the figure, it is a revenue loss the team must repay in addition to other lost income. And then we have additional use of the facility by the team for summer camp. What does the city charge a private party to rent the ice rink for one day? Call up and ask.
The city also would lose participation and revenue from 15 Friday night public skating sessions, although open skate would be held during away games.
JG Excerpt:Sure. Higher local taxes.
“There would be an economic impact on the community, without question," McCoshen said
I admit I’m not a big fan of hockey, but I could really care less if a junior hockey team plays at the Janesville ice arena. If they can get two teams to play there - all the better. But because it is a private business venture motivated by profit, the team's gains shouldn’t come at any cost from, or loss to, the taxpaying community. Even if you can reconcile yourself with the moral hazard of serving alcohol to spectators as they watch 16 to 20 year-olds play a game, the hockey organization is taking all the “liquidity” in admittance and beer sales receipts and leaving the city taxpayers to foot the rest of the bills.
Anybody could turn a city asset over to a private organization and lose money, that’s easy. We could hire a monkey to do that. Good management knows how to “make money” from its assets and return a dividend to the taxpayers, not lose it, and know how to incentivize a deal with rebates if city coffers should realize a cash surplus from the expected windfall of this so-called "economic impact." Current trends from our city administration and council are not looking good. Their record for advancing the agenda of special interests and selling our assets off short (the dump is one example, the water tower another) while handing out forgivable loans to private development is outrageous. Somehow, the Janesville City Council has to realize that Janesville is the proven asset here - not the hockey team. And our municipal government should also know there are people smart enough in Janesville to know when they mismanage the city's assets into taxpayer burdens.
Obviously, it’s the privately owned hockey team who should pay for all the structural changes at the ice arena, and pay their responsible share of the operational costs, insurance, security, EMS and all other expenditures that develop from their entertainment venture. Anything less is a losing proposition for taxpayers. And if someday the city budget realized a positive cash flow from the hockey team's efforts, the city would be able to contractually reward the organization with a small cut from "our" profits.
And finally, why is the sales pitch presented in the Gazette and from city officials regarding the hockey team so very different than the pitch of demands delivered to the football team Gladiators? Is it because they apparently did not have the high-powered supporters the Wisconsin Hockey Partners seem to have? You can bet on it.
6 comments:
Absolutely. The whole thing is a sham and the newspaper and the new city manager play along with it. So much for open communication and transparency. They know how to keep the public off balance when they fix stories like the one in saturday's Gazette just two days before it comes to a vote. Our council members are a total embarrassment, every one of them.
If you said that a few months ago, I would disagree. Back then, I thought we had at least 4 council members who were genuine and sincere in their drive to make a positive impact on city government. Their endorsement of a partisan-driven special interest a few weeks changed everything. Our city administration's purpose and duty has been corrupted while some members of the council think public service is a tool to promote themselves and their ideology. But I still have some faith in two of them, not that they care any.
You called it dude. It was fun watching some council members phony up their concern for beer drinking, only to turn around and rubber stamp it. Good post!
"The city also would lose participation and revenue from 15 Friday night public skating sessions"
Not 30 games like you posted. So the $40,000 comes out to $2,665 a game.
Not so fast. The 40 grand is still 20 at best. 15 games comes out to about $1,330 a game. But none of this really matters because for all the talk about the revenue income this venture will bring, city of Janesville taxpayers will still be on the hook subsidizing the ice arena at $65,000 annually.
Here is an interesting read about Mr. Levitt http://cache.zoominfo.com/CachedPage/?archive_id=0&page_id=492766901&page_url=%2f%2fwww.redrocknews.com%2fmediation_8_29.htm&page_last_updated=8%2f31%2f2003+2%3a38%3a03+PM&firstName=Eric&lastName=Levitt
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