COLUMN: Citizens pay for team's profit

People of Philadelphia: I have seen the future and it isn't pretty. I foresee years of negotiations, testimony from expert developers, and -- best of all -- political maneuvering. I refer, of course, to the impending crisis of finding a new place(s) for the Phillies and Eagles to play. With city neighbors the 76ers and Flyers ready to move into the $210 million CoreStates Center next season, Philadelphia's other major franchises are more than a little jealous. The arena teams are both going to experience massive windfalls as the money from corporate boxes, with which the new building is well-equipped, starts to come in. Meanwhile, the Phillies and Eagles will be caught at Veterans Stadium. Viewed from afar that doesn't look too bad. The park is spacious, easily accessible by both car and rapid transit, and could be made more comfortable inside with some smartly spent money. In fact, the only thing wrong with it (if you don't count ugliness) is that it can't generate big skybox dollars for its tenants. From the teams' standpoint, that's a huge problem. Based on prices in other markets, the boxes can be expected to fetch $50,000-$100,000 per year. Put them in a ring around a stadium, as a new place surely would, and you're getting near Judith Rodin fundraising-type numbers. So it's simple. The Phillies and Eagles go off and build a new stadium and we all live happily ever after, right? Wrong. Phillies president Bill Giles and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, like cranky children, don't want to share anymore. Even if they did, the teams, especially the Eagles, who Lurie bought with $185 million of borrowed money two years ago, just do not have the cash. So the teams have turned longingly to the government, specifically the city of Philadelphia. "Build us a new stadium", they say, "and it'll revitalize the city. Come on, Milwaukee's doing it. So are Cincinnati and Seattle. Everyone's doing it." The city's response is the cause of the brewing storm. Philadelphia will help finance a part (probably well over half if history is any indication) of a new stadium, which could carry a tag of $400 million after cost overruns. But it will only build one. Someone's got to stay at the Vet. Both teams lay out arguments for why they should be the chosen one. The Vet, according to the baseball team, is really a football stadium anyway. Besides, building a new stadium is a surer way of attracting fans than, say, assembling a good team or charging reasonable prices. What's more, the Phils would need it for 81 home dates to the Eagles' 10. Sensitive to the usage argument, the Eagles last week put out the bait of a team in the new Major League Soccer, which is off to a surprisingly good start around the country. A soccer team, which Jeff Lurie would even consider owning if no one else stepped forward, could supply another 20 dates per season. But the key question is not which team the city will choose to support, but why the city is even involved in ballpark construction? The public part of the funding would almost certainly come from a sales tax increase, lottery, or bond issue which would lead to higher taxes. The problem with these methods, especially the first two, is that they are regressive. Poorer Philadelphians would be footing the bill for the big-time sports industry. In what other business does this happen? Imagine this: Finding themselves cramped at their present location, Neiman Marcus asks Philadelphia to build it a new, improved store. The city raises taxes on its poorest citizens and the ritzy retailers open a new, more profitable store. Sounds pretty bizarre, doesn't it? Well, it's about to happen here. The reason this can happen is simple. The teams hold the biggest card of all -- status. Although Lurie swears he'll never take the Eagles out of Philadelphia, promises are increasingly hard to believe in a world in which equally large cities like Houston and Los Angeles (twice) have stared at losing a team. Only one man can stop this madness -- Mayor Rendell. All America's Mayor has to do is gather the sports execs in a room and start acting like he did with those high school kids a few weeks ago. Get angry, Ed. Bang the table. Break some windows. Tell them that you know and they know that sports is a paying proposition and if they won't run a team in Philly, someone will be happy to step into the country's fourth biggest TV market and start making money. But that's a risk the mayor can not take. The loss of a big league team would be a huge blow to Philadelphia's pride. You can bet Mayor Rendell doesn't want to be known as the man who turned Philly into a minor-league town when he runs for governor in a few years. In fact, city officials have never made any indication they will stand up to the sports bullies.