azdad1978
Championship!!!!
D-Backs' success erases ill will over BOB
Tim Tyers
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 9, 2005 12:00 AM
Ten years ago today, Major League Baseball owners made it official with a unanimous vote approving new franchises in Phoenix and the Tampa Bay area.
The first pitch for the expansion Diamondbacks was more than three years away, and the memorable Game 7 that brought the state its first major sports championship was 6 1/2 years up the road.
The points of conversation were the team's name, and colors. "You don't pet and you don't ride Diamondback rattlesnakes. We wanted to put a little bite in our name," Jerry Colangelo said at the time.
The other topic of conversation was the ballpark - and the sales tax. Few local issues have been as bitterly divisive as the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors' vote to provide a tax-financed ballpark.
The issue magically evaporated with the team's early success, but not before political careers were ruined and gunshots rang out. But five principals in laying the groundwork - Colangelo and Maricopa County supervisors Ed King, Jim Bruner Mary Rose Wilcox and Tom Rawles - said they would do the same thing today.
The quarter-cent tax to pay for the ballpark raised $253 million in funds in 2 1/2 years. While fans remain divided about whether public money should have been spent on Bank One Ballpark, the supervisors believed their approval was the only way to bring a major league team to the desert.
Efforts had failed before. But in 1993, Colangelo, later the Diamondbacks' managing general partner, had been on a roll. The Suns had moved to the new America West Arena for the 1992-93 season, and Charles Barkley led the team to the NBA Finals.
Shortly afterward, Bruner and attorney Joe Garagiola Jr. visited Colangelo with news that Major League Baseball was considering expanding by two, and Phoenix was in play.
That meeting led to Colangelo's involvement, the supervisors' vote to enact a tax vehicle to construct Bank One Ballpark, an assassination attempt on Wilcox and political ruin for supervisors Bruner and King.
Colangelo, too, felt the wrath, branded by a vocal segment of Valley taxpayers as an arrogant fat cat who bullied the public for personal gain.
"Well, I survived," Colangelo said. "I felt the impact on the quality of life of people in our city and state would be forever changed with the (arrival) of major league baseball. I think that has been proven. So, therefore, it was worth everything."
Dick Barden, 71, of Phoenix, recalled, "Oh, I suppose I had friends who were opposed to it but I really don't remember. We just wanted to see a major league baseball team here. . . . It (tax amount) was really an insignificant thing. I'm not sure that taxpayers need to pay for a stadium . . . (but) I was for it regardless of how they did it."
The big vote
A major reason for Colangelo's decision to go forward was that a vehicle to construct a stadium already was in place.
In June 1990, the state Legislature had signed off on a bill empowering the Maricopa County supervisors to assess a sales tax to build a baseball-only stadium.
On Feb. 17, 1994, after three months of political wrangling and waffling, the supervisors voted to impose the tax, with the proviso that MLB had until April 1, 1995, to award a franchise or the stadium financing plan would die.
Bruner, King and Wilcox voted to impose the tax, the deciding vote coming from Bruner. The lone "no" vote came from Rawles.
Betsy Bayless abstained, citing a conflict because her family owned land adjacent to the projected stadium site.
The people's distrust
Citizens were upset because the tax was being implemented without a public vote.
Dr. Dennis Howard, head of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon, said the uproar isn't unique to Phoenix. "That happened in three other cities - Pittsburgh, Seattle and Milwaukee - where the voters voted 'no' on the question of raising taxes and the legislature passed legislation independently, which provided public support for building a new facility."
The tax, according to estimates, cost Valley taxpayers about $25 a year. It raised $253 million and reached its $238 million cap, plus a $15 million loan to the team to help create stadium infrastructure, and expired in 2 1/2 years.
King, who's now involved in buying and selling real estate, says that more than 30 percent of the money raised from the tax came from Valley tourism, and he added the $15 million loan was also repaid.
Cleaning up
Bank One Ballpark, combined with America West Arena a few blocks away and surrounding new construction, also was a factor in revitalizing a high-crime area called "The Deuce," filled with porn shops and sleazy bars.
But the supervisors' vote also left the large anti-tax faction frustrated and seething. Dick Freeman, president and chief executive officer of the San Diego Padres, was with the Pittsburgh Pirates when PNC Ballpark was constructed. Freeman re-joined the Padres 2002 when Petco Park construction was restarted after a two-year delay.
"Once the financing was done, the one thing I will say about Pittsburgh, is the controversy pretty much went away," Freeman said. "Whereas in San Diego, there was a group that just kept it on the front burner forever until they finally began construction again. Now they view it as an asset.
"Our story (San Diego) is a good one, and it sounds like it is in Phoenix, too."
Assassin's bullet
Although Wilcox, the only member who is still sitting on the Board of Supervisors, said that she had "reasonable" support from her District 5 constituents, she nearly paid the greatest price.
On Aug. 13, 1997, Larry Naman, a homeless man with a history of mental problems, fired a .357 Magnum handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets at Wilcox, wounding her in the buttocks, pelvis and left leg. During his trial, which resulted in a conviction for attempted first-degree murder, Naman said he was driven by passage of the tax without a public vote.
"It was a very intense time," Wilcox said. "I had a lot of contact with my community. I wanted to make sure there was a lot of minority business involvement, and that the community knew what was going on." She said more than 2,000 workers were involved in construction of the stadium and that many lived in her district.
"Those were very good jobs for a three-year period that paid between $17 and $19 an hour and brought financial stability," she said.
King, too, almost did business with the wrong end of a handgun. Opposition to his vote ran so high in his West Valley district, which includes traditionally anti-tax Sun City, that during a door-to-door re-election campaign a constituent threatened him away with a .45-caliber weapon.
Career-ending decision
King, who was soundly defeated for re-election, said being a native and growing up without a major league team probably gave him a different perspective than most.
"You get over that stuff," King said. "That was 1996 and it's 2005.
" . . . I absolutely believe it was the right message, along with the freeway construction and airport expansion, and really it has helped with our economic development."
Bruner, who had plans to run for U.S. Congress in fall 1994, was told by his campaign advisers to resign from the Board of Supervisors and to distance himself from the stadium tax issue. He didn't, and his political dream ended in the September primary.
"I got the process started and I wasn't going to walk away from it. I honestly believe if I had walked away from it, the stadium never would have happened," he said.
Bruner and King felt strongly that baseball was another vehicle to help galvanize the community.
"We want to be a great city," King said. "We were trying to create synergy and pull it together. It's a quality-of-life issue; an intangible and you can't put a price tag on that. It's all about the next generation and doing what is best for the community."
The players
Four Maricopa County supervisors cast the votes determining BOB's funding, and Jerry Colangelo helped see it through. Below, with photos of the principals then (early 1990s) and now, is background and fallout from each of the five:
BACKGROUND
SUPERVISOR JIM BRUNER
Bruner, representing District.2 (Scottsdale and parts of Mesa), was well aware that he was committing political suicide. For him, the stakes were much greater than that of King. The ex-Scottsdale City Council member was considered the front-runner for the 4th Congressional seat being vacated by Jon Kyl, who left in a successful bid for the U.S. Senate.
"Remember that with the primary in September," Bruner said. "It was the year that the players and owners had a work stoppage the day after Labor Day and canceled the World Series. My primary was the next week. Most people didn't want to have anything to do with baseball."
JERRY COLANGELO
When Bruner and Joe Garagiola Jr. came to Colangelo it was after Valley and state leaders had failed in a 1990 expansion attempt, when the ownership group headed by Martin Stone dropped out after failing to raise the $95.million expansion fee.
Colangelo, a lifelong sports fan and budding power broker, could not help himself. "I eventually agreed to at least take a look and after a period of due diligence, I said, 'OK, let's give it a shot,'." he said. "I was being encouraged by a lot of sources in baseball and locally, and that's when the decision was made to go forward."
SUPERVISOR ED KING
King, a Valley native, grew up in Avondale. His District 4, which includes the West Valley and Sun City, was not receptive to a "yes" vote. "I knew that I was committing (political) hari kari; a kamikaze in waiting," he said. "The hardest thing was for my family. It was a family effort and my wife, Loree, worked hard to get me elected. She said I was throwing my political life away. She's a great lady and she was right."
SUPERVISOR TOM RAWLES
Rawles' constituency was District 1 (Mesa, Chandler, Ahwatukee). He cast the lone dissenting vote in the stadium-financing package. "I was opposed to construction of Bank One Ballpark with taxpayer funds, not with the construction of Bank One Ballpark itself," he said. Rawles, asked whether his logic also applies to construction of symphony halls and theaters, said: "Absolutely. I just voted against the Mesa Arts Center as a member of the city council. I'm boring, but I'm consistent."
SUPERVISOR MARY ROSE WILCOX
Wilcox had long been a proponent of rebuilding downtown Phoenix starting when she debuted on the political scene as a member of the Phoenix City Council in 1983. Her district's constituents, primarily south Phoenix, stood to benefit from BOB's construction. "I looked at the short-term decision and the long-term benefit in making my decision. In the short term it was tough . . . but the long-term benefits outweighed it."
FALLOUT
SUPERVISOR JIM BRUNER
Bruner said he and his wife, Sandy, received numerous crank calls in the wee hours with only heavy breathing on the other end of the line.
"I asked for it and expect that," Bruner said. "But when they start getting at your family it gets to be a little much. The public wants people who are leaders and who will do the right thing. Then when you make decisions they don't agree with, they get upset. If all you want is people who don't have courage and won't make decisions, you're not going to have the leaders in government that you want."
JERRY COLANGELO
"I think some cities have had even more difficult circumstances, and some have never been able to get it done," Colangelo said. "It was certainly tumultuous from a personal standpoint, but I think it was the result of people not being educated to the fact that the legislature had put a funding mechanism in place much before we showed any interest, or anyone approached me about trying to get a baseball team. I'd do everything the same way all over again." "It was hard on me," he said. "I can't say it wasn't. But nothing comes easy."
SUPERVISOR ED KING
King was soundly defeated in his bid for re-election. "Either you're a politician who can only see as far away as the next election, or you're a statesman and you can see into the next generation," he said. "Here I am, sitting on the board, representing the most conservative dot on the world map, and I'm not going to vote against my convictions or what I believed in. My convictions were to go for baseball."
"Life goes on," he said. "Kids grow up and go to college. It's a new chapter, but it was a great time to be in office for four years."
SUPERVISOR TOM RAWLES
"It's a beautiful facility and all that, I just think it is inherently wrong for government to use taxpayers' dollars to build infrastructure for private, for-profit companies. Government's job is to secure our freedom, not our happiness."
Rawles was pleased with the final deal the board worked out with the team. "I think we negotiated the best public sports facility deal that had been done up to that time," he said. "It didn't make it a good one in my mind from a taxpayer's standpoint, but it was the best that has been done in a while."
SUPERVISOR MARY ROSE WILCOX
Wilcox was the target of an assassination attempt in 1997. "It just happened," Wilcox said. "When something like that happens, you try to put it behind you. I was very lucky. God wasn't quite finished with me yet. I wish it hadn't happened, but I have no regrets that we built the stadium.
BOB, according to Wilcox, has not become a drain on county funds. "We're going great," she said. " We're taking care of never having to go back to the taxpayer. I think the people in my district are pleased, and the proof is that I was re-elected."
NOW
SUPERVISOR JIM BRUNER
Bruner is executive vice president of First National Bank of Arizona
JERRY COLANGELO
Colangelo, a development mogul, is chairman and CEO of the Phoenix Suns.
SUPERVISOR ED KING
King is a real estate developer/investor.
SUPERVISOR TOM RAWLES
Rawles is a Valley attorney and a member of the Mesa City Council.
SUPERVISOR MARY ROSE WILCOX
Wilcox remains a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Another way
San Francisco Giants owner Peter Magowan had his struggles trying to build the Giants' current home, SBC Park (formerly Pac Bell Park).
"We were voted down four times," he said, "and the fourth time that it was rejected in the summer 1992, the owner put the team up for sale and sold it to people in Tampa Bay. We then came in and undid his deal, but he actually had a definitive legal agreement to sell."
So Magowan did what he had to do. "We picked up all of the tab," he said. "It is a $330.million stadium and there is not one dollar of taxpayer money in our stadium."
The incremental tax of $15 million on San Francisco's stadium, Magowan said, was "totally financed by revenue that the ballpark would generate itself."
Magowan's view of the Valley's needs at the time construction began included the necessity of a roof, and he believed that a state-of-the-art facility was essential to the sport's success here: "You had to have a covered stadium because of the Arizona heat in the summer. Certainly their attendance gave the impression that people liked what they saw with the stadium."
Taxing questions
Dr. Dennis Howard, whose specialty is stadium economics, weighs in on the money comparisons: "In Milwaukee, a state senator cast the deciding vote and was ultimately defeated for re-election because there was so much public outcry," Howard said, adding that the quarter-cent tax on Maricopa County citizens was actually a bargain in terms of a general tax.
SPECIFICS
• "Paul Allen in Seattle had to contribute about $100 million for the new Seahawks stadium."
• "In Cincinnati, Hamilton County imposed a half-cent increase in sales tax. Since then there has been growing resistance in most cities against a broad-based tax."
- Tim Tyers
Fans remember
Baseball fans' opinions about the stadium tax:
"I didn't mind the tax, absolutely not. The fifth largest city in America deserved a major league ball team."
- Rosalie Hoffer, Scottsdale
"Truthfully, I was kind of against it. . . . (But) I don't think there is any lingering resentment. Look what it has done for downtown Phoenix. It was a high crime area, and now there are restaurants down there and a lot of things to do."
- Spud McMurphy, senior citizen, Phoenix
"Originally I was, and I still am, upset that the public had to fund what is essentially a private enterprise. In fact, I didn't go to any Diamondbacks games for the first year because of that. . . . I love the stadium . . . it still bothers me in the back of mind."
- Dennis Howard, 36, Phoenix native
"Yes, I was for it. I don't know anyone who was against it, I really don't. Major league baseball was something we all wanted here."
- Ralph Mendez, 39, Phoenix
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0309BOBmain0309.html
Tim Tyers
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 9, 2005 12:00 AM
Ten years ago today, Major League Baseball owners made it official with a unanimous vote approving new franchises in Phoenix and the Tampa Bay area.
The first pitch for the expansion Diamondbacks was more than three years away, and the memorable Game 7 that brought the state its first major sports championship was 6 1/2 years up the road.
The points of conversation were the team's name, and colors. "You don't pet and you don't ride Diamondback rattlesnakes. We wanted to put a little bite in our name," Jerry Colangelo said at the time.
The other topic of conversation was the ballpark - and the sales tax. Few local issues have been as bitterly divisive as the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors' vote to provide a tax-financed ballpark.
The issue magically evaporated with the team's early success, but not before political careers were ruined and gunshots rang out. But five principals in laying the groundwork - Colangelo and Maricopa County supervisors Ed King, Jim Bruner Mary Rose Wilcox and Tom Rawles - said they would do the same thing today.
The quarter-cent tax to pay for the ballpark raised $253 million in funds in 2 1/2 years. While fans remain divided about whether public money should have been spent on Bank One Ballpark, the supervisors believed their approval was the only way to bring a major league team to the desert.
Efforts had failed before. But in 1993, Colangelo, later the Diamondbacks' managing general partner, had been on a roll. The Suns had moved to the new America West Arena for the 1992-93 season, and Charles Barkley led the team to the NBA Finals.
Shortly afterward, Bruner and attorney Joe Garagiola Jr. visited Colangelo with news that Major League Baseball was considering expanding by two, and Phoenix was in play.
That meeting led to Colangelo's involvement, the supervisors' vote to enact a tax vehicle to construct Bank One Ballpark, an assassination attempt on Wilcox and political ruin for supervisors Bruner and King.
Colangelo, too, felt the wrath, branded by a vocal segment of Valley taxpayers as an arrogant fat cat who bullied the public for personal gain.
"Well, I survived," Colangelo said. "I felt the impact on the quality of life of people in our city and state would be forever changed with the (arrival) of major league baseball. I think that has been proven. So, therefore, it was worth everything."
Dick Barden, 71, of Phoenix, recalled, "Oh, I suppose I had friends who were opposed to it but I really don't remember. We just wanted to see a major league baseball team here. . . . It (tax amount) was really an insignificant thing. I'm not sure that taxpayers need to pay for a stadium . . . (but) I was for it regardless of how they did it."
The big vote
A major reason for Colangelo's decision to go forward was that a vehicle to construct a stadium already was in place.
In June 1990, the state Legislature had signed off on a bill empowering the Maricopa County supervisors to assess a sales tax to build a baseball-only stadium.
On Feb. 17, 1994, after three months of political wrangling and waffling, the supervisors voted to impose the tax, with the proviso that MLB had until April 1, 1995, to award a franchise or the stadium financing plan would die.
Bruner, King and Wilcox voted to impose the tax, the deciding vote coming from Bruner. The lone "no" vote came from Rawles.
Betsy Bayless abstained, citing a conflict because her family owned land adjacent to the projected stadium site.
The people's distrust
Citizens were upset because the tax was being implemented without a public vote.
Dr. Dennis Howard, head of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon, said the uproar isn't unique to Phoenix. "That happened in three other cities - Pittsburgh, Seattle and Milwaukee - where the voters voted 'no' on the question of raising taxes and the legislature passed legislation independently, which provided public support for building a new facility."
The tax, according to estimates, cost Valley taxpayers about $25 a year. It raised $253 million and reached its $238 million cap, plus a $15 million loan to the team to help create stadium infrastructure, and expired in 2 1/2 years.
King, who's now involved in buying and selling real estate, says that more than 30 percent of the money raised from the tax came from Valley tourism, and he added the $15 million loan was also repaid.
Cleaning up
Bank One Ballpark, combined with America West Arena a few blocks away and surrounding new construction, also was a factor in revitalizing a high-crime area called "The Deuce," filled with porn shops and sleazy bars.
But the supervisors' vote also left the large anti-tax faction frustrated and seething. Dick Freeman, president and chief executive officer of the San Diego Padres, was with the Pittsburgh Pirates when PNC Ballpark was constructed. Freeman re-joined the Padres 2002 when Petco Park construction was restarted after a two-year delay.
"Once the financing was done, the one thing I will say about Pittsburgh, is the controversy pretty much went away," Freeman said. "Whereas in San Diego, there was a group that just kept it on the front burner forever until they finally began construction again. Now they view it as an asset.
"Our story (San Diego) is a good one, and it sounds like it is in Phoenix, too."
Assassin's bullet
Although Wilcox, the only member who is still sitting on the Board of Supervisors, said that she had "reasonable" support from her District 5 constituents, she nearly paid the greatest price.
On Aug. 13, 1997, Larry Naman, a homeless man with a history of mental problems, fired a .357 Magnum handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets at Wilcox, wounding her in the buttocks, pelvis and left leg. During his trial, which resulted in a conviction for attempted first-degree murder, Naman said he was driven by passage of the tax without a public vote.
"It was a very intense time," Wilcox said. "I had a lot of contact with my community. I wanted to make sure there was a lot of minority business involvement, and that the community knew what was going on." She said more than 2,000 workers were involved in construction of the stadium and that many lived in her district.
"Those were very good jobs for a three-year period that paid between $17 and $19 an hour and brought financial stability," she said.
King, too, almost did business with the wrong end of a handgun. Opposition to his vote ran so high in his West Valley district, which includes traditionally anti-tax Sun City, that during a door-to-door re-election campaign a constituent threatened him away with a .45-caliber weapon.
Career-ending decision
King, who was soundly defeated for re-election, said being a native and growing up without a major league team probably gave him a different perspective than most.
"You get over that stuff," King said. "That was 1996 and it's 2005.
" . . . I absolutely believe it was the right message, along with the freeway construction and airport expansion, and really it has helped with our economic development."
Bruner, who had plans to run for U.S. Congress in fall 1994, was told by his campaign advisers to resign from the Board of Supervisors and to distance himself from the stadium tax issue. He didn't, and his political dream ended in the September primary.
"I got the process started and I wasn't going to walk away from it. I honestly believe if I had walked away from it, the stadium never would have happened," he said.
Bruner and King felt strongly that baseball was another vehicle to help galvanize the community.
"We want to be a great city," King said. "We were trying to create synergy and pull it together. It's a quality-of-life issue; an intangible and you can't put a price tag on that. It's all about the next generation and doing what is best for the community."
The players
Four Maricopa County supervisors cast the votes determining BOB's funding, and Jerry Colangelo helped see it through. Below, with photos of the principals then (early 1990s) and now, is background and fallout from each of the five:
BACKGROUND
SUPERVISOR JIM BRUNER
Bruner, representing District.2 (Scottsdale and parts of Mesa), was well aware that he was committing political suicide. For him, the stakes were much greater than that of King. The ex-Scottsdale City Council member was considered the front-runner for the 4th Congressional seat being vacated by Jon Kyl, who left in a successful bid for the U.S. Senate.
"Remember that with the primary in September," Bruner said. "It was the year that the players and owners had a work stoppage the day after Labor Day and canceled the World Series. My primary was the next week. Most people didn't want to have anything to do with baseball."
JERRY COLANGELO
When Bruner and Joe Garagiola Jr. came to Colangelo it was after Valley and state leaders had failed in a 1990 expansion attempt, when the ownership group headed by Martin Stone dropped out after failing to raise the $95.million expansion fee.
Colangelo, a lifelong sports fan and budding power broker, could not help himself. "I eventually agreed to at least take a look and after a period of due diligence, I said, 'OK, let's give it a shot,'." he said. "I was being encouraged by a lot of sources in baseball and locally, and that's when the decision was made to go forward."
SUPERVISOR ED KING
King, a Valley native, grew up in Avondale. His District 4, which includes the West Valley and Sun City, was not receptive to a "yes" vote. "I knew that I was committing (political) hari kari; a kamikaze in waiting," he said. "The hardest thing was for my family. It was a family effort and my wife, Loree, worked hard to get me elected. She said I was throwing my political life away. She's a great lady and she was right."
SUPERVISOR TOM RAWLES
Rawles' constituency was District 1 (Mesa, Chandler, Ahwatukee). He cast the lone dissenting vote in the stadium-financing package. "I was opposed to construction of Bank One Ballpark with taxpayer funds, not with the construction of Bank One Ballpark itself," he said. Rawles, asked whether his logic also applies to construction of symphony halls and theaters, said: "Absolutely. I just voted against the Mesa Arts Center as a member of the city council. I'm boring, but I'm consistent."
SUPERVISOR MARY ROSE WILCOX
Wilcox had long been a proponent of rebuilding downtown Phoenix starting when she debuted on the political scene as a member of the Phoenix City Council in 1983. Her district's constituents, primarily south Phoenix, stood to benefit from BOB's construction. "I looked at the short-term decision and the long-term benefit in making my decision. In the short term it was tough . . . but the long-term benefits outweighed it."
FALLOUT
SUPERVISOR JIM BRUNER
Bruner said he and his wife, Sandy, received numerous crank calls in the wee hours with only heavy breathing on the other end of the line.
"I asked for it and expect that," Bruner said. "But when they start getting at your family it gets to be a little much. The public wants people who are leaders and who will do the right thing. Then when you make decisions they don't agree with, they get upset. If all you want is people who don't have courage and won't make decisions, you're not going to have the leaders in government that you want."
JERRY COLANGELO
"I think some cities have had even more difficult circumstances, and some have never been able to get it done," Colangelo said. "It was certainly tumultuous from a personal standpoint, but I think it was the result of people not being educated to the fact that the legislature had put a funding mechanism in place much before we showed any interest, or anyone approached me about trying to get a baseball team. I'd do everything the same way all over again." "It was hard on me," he said. "I can't say it wasn't. But nothing comes easy."
SUPERVISOR ED KING
King was soundly defeated in his bid for re-election. "Either you're a politician who can only see as far away as the next election, or you're a statesman and you can see into the next generation," he said. "Here I am, sitting on the board, representing the most conservative dot on the world map, and I'm not going to vote against my convictions or what I believed in. My convictions were to go for baseball."
"Life goes on," he said. "Kids grow up and go to college. It's a new chapter, but it was a great time to be in office for four years."
SUPERVISOR TOM RAWLES
"It's a beautiful facility and all that, I just think it is inherently wrong for government to use taxpayers' dollars to build infrastructure for private, for-profit companies. Government's job is to secure our freedom, not our happiness."
Rawles was pleased with the final deal the board worked out with the team. "I think we negotiated the best public sports facility deal that had been done up to that time," he said. "It didn't make it a good one in my mind from a taxpayer's standpoint, but it was the best that has been done in a while."
SUPERVISOR MARY ROSE WILCOX
Wilcox was the target of an assassination attempt in 1997. "It just happened," Wilcox said. "When something like that happens, you try to put it behind you. I was very lucky. God wasn't quite finished with me yet. I wish it hadn't happened, but I have no regrets that we built the stadium.
BOB, according to Wilcox, has not become a drain on county funds. "We're going great," she said. " We're taking care of never having to go back to the taxpayer. I think the people in my district are pleased, and the proof is that I was re-elected."
NOW
SUPERVISOR JIM BRUNER
Bruner is executive vice president of First National Bank of Arizona
JERRY COLANGELO
Colangelo, a development mogul, is chairman and CEO of the Phoenix Suns.
SUPERVISOR ED KING
King is a real estate developer/investor.
SUPERVISOR TOM RAWLES
Rawles is a Valley attorney and a member of the Mesa City Council.
SUPERVISOR MARY ROSE WILCOX
Wilcox remains a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Another way
San Francisco Giants owner Peter Magowan had his struggles trying to build the Giants' current home, SBC Park (formerly Pac Bell Park).
"We were voted down four times," he said, "and the fourth time that it was rejected in the summer 1992, the owner put the team up for sale and sold it to people in Tampa Bay. We then came in and undid his deal, but he actually had a definitive legal agreement to sell."
So Magowan did what he had to do. "We picked up all of the tab," he said. "It is a $330.million stadium and there is not one dollar of taxpayer money in our stadium."
The incremental tax of $15 million on San Francisco's stadium, Magowan said, was "totally financed by revenue that the ballpark would generate itself."
Magowan's view of the Valley's needs at the time construction began included the necessity of a roof, and he believed that a state-of-the-art facility was essential to the sport's success here: "You had to have a covered stadium because of the Arizona heat in the summer. Certainly their attendance gave the impression that people liked what they saw with the stadium."
Taxing questions
Dr. Dennis Howard, whose specialty is stadium economics, weighs in on the money comparisons: "In Milwaukee, a state senator cast the deciding vote and was ultimately defeated for re-election because there was so much public outcry," Howard said, adding that the quarter-cent tax on Maricopa County citizens was actually a bargain in terms of a general tax.
SPECIFICS
• "Paul Allen in Seattle had to contribute about $100 million for the new Seahawks stadium."
• "In Cincinnati, Hamilton County imposed a half-cent increase in sales tax. Since then there has been growing resistance in most cities against a broad-based tax."
- Tim Tyers
Fans remember
Baseball fans' opinions about the stadium tax:
"I didn't mind the tax, absolutely not. The fifth largest city in America deserved a major league ball team."
- Rosalie Hoffer, Scottsdale
"Truthfully, I was kind of against it. . . . (But) I don't think there is any lingering resentment. Look what it has done for downtown Phoenix. It was a high crime area, and now there are restaurants down there and a lot of things to do."
- Spud McMurphy, senior citizen, Phoenix
"Originally I was, and I still am, upset that the public had to fund what is essentially a private enterprise. In fact, I didn't go to any Diamondbacks games for the first year because of that. . . . I love the stadium . . . it still bothers me in the back of mind."
- Dennis Howard, 36, Phoenix native
"Yes, I was for it. I don't know anyone who was against it, I really don't. Major league baseball was something we all wanted here."
- Ralph Mendez, 39, Phoenix
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0309BOBmain0309.html
