In major league baseball cities across the country, new stadiums have been conceived in marriages of civic exuberance and either the prospect or hope of financial gain. But who pays? Should taxpayers be involved? If so, would their investment benefit the region? What happens if costs exceed budget? What do you think?
The dark green girders at new Safeco Field are meant to evoke baseball's oldest and most hallowed shrines -- Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago.
The color also brings to mind money, such as the $417 million budgeted for the project and the $100 million in overruns that will hang like a rain cloud over Thursday's grand opening.
As the Cardinals look around the league for tips on financing a new stadium, Safeco Field stands as a perfect case study of what NOT to do.
Imagine if the Cardinals went to the Missouri Legislature for hundreds of millions in aid -- after voters had rejected a tax package that would have built a new ballpark.
Imagine that the Legislature granted the request, likening the team's situation to an economic emergency.
Then imagine that after design changes and an aggressive construction schedule increased the final cost by 25 percent, the Cardinals asked the public to cover most of the extra expenses.
A $240 million wish
The Cardinals went public early this year with their desire to replace Busch Stadium with a new $240-million ballpark immediately to the south.
Fans have responded with skepticism. Some argue that recent improvements have made 33-year-old Busch an attractive, affordable home. Others object to the idea that public money might be used to build a new stadium for the benefit of a private enterprise.
To move the discussion beyond those starting points, we need a better understanding of Major League Baseball's building boom and the public financing methods that have made the projects possible.
Why do the Cardinals want to move to a new stadium within the next five years? What is the risk in moving forward with the project? What is the risk in waiting?
Banking on ambiance
Safeco in Seattle is the eighth new stadium to open this decade, and the first to replace a ballpark less than 20 years old. Four more new stadiums will open next year, a record for the sport.
Owners are banking on improved ambiance and additional features such as premium-priced seating to generate extra revenue and narrow the financial gap between baseball's haves and have nots.
What others have done
Here are snapshots of the stadiums under construction or ready for groundbreaking, along with brief histories of the public's involvement in their creation:
Safeco Field, Seattle
It was 60 degrees and sprinkling two Sundays ago when the morning disc jockey announced it was a perfect day for baseball in the Kingdome.
The joke was that there is seldom, if ever, a good day for baseball in the sterile, aesthetically challenged dome, which also houses football's Seattle Seahawks.
But this day was the last one for baseball in the Kingdome; the Mariners were ready to make a mid-season move to Safeco Field, a brand-new, old-style stadium a block to the south.
The Mariners went out winners, beating the Texas Rangers and filling the house for only the 39th time in 22 1/2 seasons.
The Cardinals, by comparison, have sold out Busch Stadium nearly 30 times in the 2 years since home run king Mark McGwire arrived from the Oakland Athletics.
The Mariners cast a pall over the farewell party at the Kingdome and this week's opening bash at Safeco by asking the government agency that financed the new stadium to issue $60 million in additional bonds to help cover the cost overruns.
The move incensed groups that had fought the public financing plan, and even offended some of its key backers, who said the team ordered the extra work and was responsible for the costs.
Unlike the owners of the Cardinals, who by Major League Baseball standards come from modest means, the owners of the Mariners could pay for the overruns with pocket change.
The group, which includes current or former executives from Nintendo, Microsoft, RealNetworks, McCaw Communications and Boeing, has a combined net worth exceeding $5 billion.
The $336 million in bonds the King County Public Facilities District issued to pay for Safeco are being repayed through a package of taxes, including a 0.5 percent increase in the sales tax at bars and restaurants and 2 percent increase in the tax on car rentals.
Tourists and business travelers now pay a whopping 18.6 percent tax on rentals, on top of a 10 percent airport surcharge.
The region's tourist appeal and booming economy are precisely why the Mariners are coming back to the public for more money. They say the new taxes are generating more money than projected, and that the additional revenue should be put toward the extra stadium costs.
Government officials involved in the discussions say that the team has hinted darkly that bearing the full cost of the overruns might prevent it from resigning its two biggest stars, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez, whose contracts expire at the end of next season.
Pacific Bell Park, San Francisco
If the Kingdome was grudgingly tolerated by Mariners fans, 3Com Park (formerly Candlestick Park) is downright loathed by San Francisco Giants fans.
On a 75-degree evening in late June -- warm by local standards -- fewer than 12,000 people turned out to watch the Giants pound the Colorado Rockies.
There were four empty seats for every occupied one at the ballpark, on a desolate, windswept point miles from downtown.
Even so, voters long ago put the Giants on notice that they would not foot the bill for a new stadium, even if it meant losing the team.
When a new ownership group took over in 1993, its members knew the score.
The came up with a financing plan that was unlike any other, and might not work anywhere else.
The Giants took out a $170 million loan to cover the biggest part of their $319 million project, reasoning that fuller houses in the new, improved stadium would generate enough extra revenue to cover the debt payments.
The Giants raised an additional $110 million from the sale of naming rights, sponsorships, concession rights and charter seat licenses.
The charter seat licenses are similar to the personal seat licenses the Rams sold in St. Louis when they rolled into town in 1995, except that the Giants are pouring every dollar they collect into the stadium.
The Giants put their stadium within walking distance of downtown, where the South of Market and South Beach districts meet San Francisco Bay.
The three yellow cranes moving steel beams around the rising sculpture of concrete and metal are not the only ones in the neighborhood.
Pacific Bell Park is part of a broader plan for the area, one of the few parts of the city with undeveloped land.
The only public money going into the project is $15 million in tax-increment financing from San Francisco's redevelopment agency, essentially additional tax money generated by the project.
Miller Park, Milwaukee
Putting together the financing for a new stadium was a tough puzzle in Milwaukee, one of baseball's smallest markets.
But when the former principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, Bud Selig, is also the commissioner of baseball, anything is possible.
The Brewers and their allies initially pinned their hopes on a plan that would have created new lottery games to pay for stadium projects. But voters rejected the idea by a 2-to-1 margin in 1995.
In its place came a $160 million package financed by a one-tenth of one percent increase in the sales tax and a 1 percent increase in the hotel room tax in metropolitan Milwaukee.
The Brewers agreed to pay $90 million toward the new, retractable-roof stadium, designed to shield fans and players from the April and October chill.
Relatively little of that money came directly from the team's bank accounts.
Miller Brewing Co. agreed to pay $41.2 million over 20 years to put its name on the stadium. The Bradley Foundation, a civic-minded charity, provided a low-interest $20 million loan.
Two other groups provided $29 million more in loans.
The Brewers are one of four teams from the National League's Central Division -- the Cardinals' division -- that are getting new stadiums.
Miller Park is scheduled to open at the start of next season. It will have 43,000 seats, down from the 53,000 at the team's current home, County Stadium.
The Brewers think the allure of the new stadium will bring them Cardinals-like attendance figures, giving them the money they need to strengthen their roster.
"We are absolutely convinced that we will sell 3 million tickets next year," Vice President Bob Voight said recently.
Enron Field, Houston
The Houston Astros are abandoning the "Eighth Wonder of the World" -- the Astrodome -- at the end of the season and moving to a newer, cozier $250 million ballpark.
Like Safeco in Seattle and Miller Park in Milwaukee, Enron Field will feature a retractable roof, in this case as insurance against Houston's hot, humid summers.
The Harris County-Houston Stadium Authority is putting up $180 million for the project, to be recovered through increased taxes on hotel rooms and rental cars.
Enron, a Houston-based energy and natural resources company, is not only putting its name on the stadium but helping move along the project.
A limited partnership led by the company's chairman and chief executive, Kenneth Lay, is providing $34.7 million in additional financing. The Astros will come up with the rest, through naming rights, sponsorships, seat licenses and other sources.
Comerica Park, Detroit
After pizza king Mike Ilitch bought the Detroit Tigers in 1992, he took on the unenviable task of replacing ancient and beloved Tiger Stadium.
Ilitch, who founded Little Caesars and also owns hockey's Detroit Red Wings, concluded that the team's home for the past eight decades would be too expensive to modernize.
Ilitch agreed to cover $145 million of the estimated $260 million cost, using his own money and a loan from Sumitomo Bank. The state of Michigan kicked in $60 million through a strategic development fund, and the Detroit-Wayne County Stadium Authority issued $55 million in bonds.
The new, 40,000 seat stadium, named for Comerica, a financial institution, will open next spring in an economically depressed area at the edge of downtown that is also targeted for a new football stadium for the Lions.
PNC Park, Pittsburgh
Given the size of their market and their revenue base, the Pittsburgh Pirates were forced to think small.
But the package that will bring them a new stadium in 2001 is part of a much bigger Pennsylvania plan designed to help football's Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles as well as the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Pirates are getting $75 million from the state bond program, to supplement their own $40 million contribution.
The remaining money for the $234 million stadium will come from a variety of local sources: special sales taxes, hotel taxes, a rental car surcharge, ticket surcharges, parking fees and a payroll tax on nonresident professional athletes.
The agreement also includes a provision that the Cardinals have mentioned in connection with their plan. The Pirates can use any additional sales, payroll and income taxes generated by their stadium as a credit toward rent.
Construction started in April on PNC Park, which at just over 38,000 seats will rank as one of the smallest stadiums in Major League Baseball. PNC is a financial institution.
Unnamed stadium, San Diego
After the San Diego Padres reached the World Series last year, voters rewarded them with a new stadium.
The new plan, created with the help of two citizens' task forces and many public forums, ended the possibility that the team might move to another more accommodating city.
The stadium is part of a broader urban redevelopment effort that also includes office, hotel, retail and residential space.
The Padres are responsible for $115 million in private-sector contributions, or just under 30 percent of the total cost.
The city of San Diego would provide $225 million through a bond issue, and other government entities would come up with the rest.
The new stadium, which will feature an elevated lawn-seating area beyond the outfield, is scheduled to open with the 2002 season.
The Padres have yet to sell the naming rights to the stadium.
Unnamed stadium, Cincinnati
The most recent addition to the new stadium lineup is the $297 million project approved in May by representatives of the Cincinnati Reds and Hamilton County, Ohio.
The Reds are planning to replace Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), similar in design to Busch Stadium, with a construction plan similar to the one envisioned by the Cardinals.
Both teams are using the sports facilities arm of Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum Inc., the St. Louis-based architectural firm, as advisers.
The new and as-yet unnamed Reds stadium would be built next to Cinergy Field, with the areas for the two ballparks overlapping.
In Cincinnati, much of Cinergy's outfield seating would be demolished to make room for construction of the new park, with the Reds playing in the partial stadium for about a year.
In St. Louis, the Cardinals would wait until the off-season to knock down a piece of Busch and finish the new stadium.
The Reds, who are in the process of changing owners, would pay $30 million of the stadium's $297 million cost.
Hamilton County would issue $235 million in bonds, recouping the money through a half-cent increase in the sales tax that voters approved in 1996.
The Reds expect to start playing in their new home in 2003.
