Mayor says city can't fund stadium

Current operating budget cannot cover new Phillies' home Philadelphia cannot afford to fund a new Phillies baseball stadium under its current operating budget, Mayor Ed Rendell said Sunday. "We can't take any money out of our operating capital budget because there simply is no money," Rendell said. This news comes in the wake of a recent report from the state Sports and Exposition Facilities Task Force, which announced that Pennsylvania would contribute only 15 to 35 percent of the cost of new stadiums. Rendell said that the city has already paid approximately $45 million over the last five years to maintain the Phillies' current home, Veterans Stadium. "Above and beyond that we can't do anymore," Rendell said. But the mayor added that if new sources of funding could be found outside of the city's current budget, the situation may change. "The report also said that they might consider passing enabling legislation for some kind of regional tax -- a tax on rental cars, an addition to the cigarette tax, an addition to the amusement tax," Rendell said. "I have to see what that is. I could be in favor of that, and that could produce additional revenue." The task force report released by Governor Tom Ridge last Wednesday recommended establishing a permanent authority to deal with stadium and convention center financing requests. The report also suggested that state financing for any project not exceed 35 percent, a blow to several state teams looking for new facilities. But the report did allow exceptions to this rule in unusual circumstances, a fact which Phillies Director of Business Development Joe Giles said leaves hope for additional state financing for a new Phillies stadium. "The words 'other circumstances' in the report -- that opens the door to negotiations," Giles said. "That is a step in the right direction and a good starting point for talking to them." Giles, the son of Phillies president Bill Giles, said the report's funding recommendations did not come as a surprise to the team. But he said he is not worried about the report or about the city's inability to provide financing within the constraints of the current budget. "We're hoping when all is said and done, the state will kick in more than 35 percent and?we'll see how the whole thing plays out," Giles said. Giles also argued that the city can help the team in other ways, such as allowing the Phillies to move out of Veterans Stadium before their current lease expires in 2011. Financing the stadium is not the only sticking point. The Phillies are currently considering two locations for a new stadium, and city officials and citizens continue to argue the merits of both plans. Rendell has expressed doubts about the plan to build a stadium at 30th and Walnut streets -- next to Penn's Bower Field -- because he fears the huge costs of infrastructure changes around 30th Street. Instead, he favors building in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, present location of Veterans' Stadium and the Spectrum. "The problem is we are strapped for money as it is," Rendell said. "If you put it in the Sports Complex, the infrastructure is already there: the highways, the exits, the ramps, the subways. "If we build it on 30th Street, I didn't see a plan that had close to adequate parking," he added. "We would have to spend tens of millions of dollars to widen the exits on the Schuylkill Expressway, and we'd have to probably build huge surface parking lots -- that would probably add as much as $30, 40, or 50 million to the project." Giles conceded the mayor's fears may be justified. "I think the mayor wants to see it happen somewhere in the city, so he is supporting place where the probability is highest of it working out," Giles said.

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