New_Stadiums

Why do They Really Build New Baseball Stadiums When you think of the famous Yankee stadium, The Polo Grounds, Griffith Stadium, Wrigley Field, and so many other famous homes for some of the greatest Major League Baseball franchises you think of so many memories. Some of these are good and some of these are bad but they always bring us back to the same old memories. Every year there are still some big time franchises that feel the need to replace some of the stadiums that do not need to be. If you ask me it is because the only concern on the owner’s mind is that they want to make money. Throughout this essay you will hear from different analysts and experts on why owners are doing what they are doing and how these new stadiums are making money. Back in the day people went to the ballpark to go watch a baseball game but now that just is not enough. Now when we go to watch a game people go there to have an experience of some kind. The new ballparks are not being built for the players but for the fans that know very little about the game at hand. I think that Jack Rouse said it best when he stated "Baseball is sure not about nine guys on a field anymore. If we are going to hook people on baseball, we don't do it by making them sit through nine innings. If we can make the experience more pleasurable, we should." I think this really says something about the game today. Some of the newer ballparks today have added some “theme park” like attractions. Some of these include play sets for kids or some even have arcades in them. At U.S. Cellular Field for every game they offer a speed pitch machine, two arcades, and an obstacle course. In addition they have some special game days where they will have different activities for people who don’t know that much about baseball and want to enjoy the experience of the ballpark. With this some of the new stadiums that are going up there are some of the owners that are thinking about adding more luxury seats that could run up to 1000 dollars each. This could be that they want some important people to go there for some meetings or business propositions. For example in 2012 when the new Turner Field goes up in Atlanta it is likely that it could hold close to 29,000 suites which is a little bit more than half of the maximum capacity of the whole stadium. These tickets will cost around 1,000 dollars. If this is to happen what kind of people can afford to pay that much money to watch one baseball game. Not many. This just further proves why the whole face of the game is changing. Instead of building a new stadium for the pleasure of the fans this is just an opportunity for all of the owners of the teams to make a lot of money in the process. Another way in which owner’s are trying to pull more money out of the fans by putting all sorts of merchandise stores all over the stadium. They mark up the prices on the clothes and collectables so that they can make money of that. Also if you build a really incredible stadium that everyone talks about you could make a killing on the revenue from tickets so that everyone could go and see it. That is why some of the owner’s are starting to put little museums or award walls in places in the stadium. Something like this could include a row of plaques that acknowledge the accomplishments of some of the greats that have played for that particular team. Or it could be someone that could have been around the franchise like an announcer or a coach. Now if you really take a look on the process to get a new stadium built it is a really long process and it is not always just up to the team owner of where and when he wants to throw up new ballparks. Since it would go in some city owned property most of the time they have to go to the city council of that particular city and ask permission before they can just go out and start building. Also there are certain financing options that have to be discussed, who is going to pay for it, and how are they going to pay for it' These are very important questions that need to be answered before they can start building. In some cases the cost of the stadium will be paid for by a private source, the team or a donator, or some of it could be incorporated by taxes. They claim that if the taxpayers pay then the community will benefit both economically and psychologically from such an investment. Some of their arguments include how if you help support the new ballpark then it will create more jobs for people in the community; it would enhance tax collections, and increase the land values. Also it could send that particular city or state to a new “Major League” status. Since 2006 around 7 billion dollars have been spent on building new stadiums with a huge percent of those paying be taxpayers in that city. With the construction of new stadiums the owner’s are making a lot more money on the stadium than just ticket sales and merchandise sales. With some of the taxpayers most likely not even knowing that they are actually paying for some of the players’ salaries. If you have someone making over 1 million dollars and he is getting paid extra money from the tax that the people are paying that is widely viewed as unfair and unjust with many. This is just another way that some of the big moguls that own the team are trying to make money on an investment that people would not think about unless they are really involved. As discussed in “Show me the money” they ask students in their economic classes three questions. The first question that they asked was by a show of hands that would support the building of a new baseball stadium. As expected they got about a half and half response. When he asked some of the students why they voted the way that they did the ones that said they didn’t support it said that the money could go elsewhere, like towards the sick people or to a tax cut. The ones for said that baseball was a wonderful American pastime. One of the new stadiums and probably the most recognized that is almost done is the new Yankee Stadium. I had the pleasure of going to New York this summer and checking out what they had done and it looked like a coliseum. This new stadium that will open in April 2009 can hold nearly 52,000 with a grass field and open air. The estimated cost to build this was said to be around 1.3 billion dollars. The public financing for this project was 220 million from New York City for parking facilities and the rest about 1.1 billion from the Yankees organization. In addition of the cost of the stadium that the tax payers are paying for, some of the tickets will cost 3,800 dollars. The average is looking like it will be around 36.58 dollars which is the third highest in the MLB. The new stadium will have an exterior façade which is going to replicate the one of the old Yankee stadium. Something different is the interior of the stadium, which is going to be a separate structure that is going to rise above the top of the exterior. From looking at the new stadium from the outside it looks like the old one. The new ballpark would hold around 47,000 people and have a retractable roof.