City completes stadium deal

Much like cheesesteaks and soft pretzels, another Philadelphia tradition isn't going away anytime soon -- the long trek down Broad Street for Eagles and Phillies games. Ending nearly three years of often contentious discussion, City Council last month voted 15-2 in favor of building two new stadiums off Broad Street in South Philadelphia. Although getting this legislation passed is a major feather in Mayor John Street's cap, some feel that how the $1.01 billion deal was constructed -- behind closed doors and hurried to meet an end-of-year deadline -- leaves much to be desired. "It was a pretty bad process, certainly not one that should be repeated," Councilman James Kenney said, referring to the timing as "playing Russian Roulette with a loaded gun." For months, city officials, the Eagles and Phillies management and community residents wrangled with many issues, including funding gaps and where to ultimately build the two ballparks. While the Eagles were generally content to remain near their current home in South Philadelphia, Street pushed hard for a downtown baseball stadium near Chinatown. But facing a significantly higher price tag and sharp criticism from area residents, the city ultimately decided that South Philadelphia was the most viable option. Failure to approve the measures by the year's end would have made the city responsible for $80 million in repairs to Veterans Stadium, where both the football team and baseball team currently play. The city would also have had to purchase the Eagles' new practice facility on Broad Street. "[Former Mayor Ed] Rendell kept [stadium plans] a secret, and so did Street," Kenney said. "The citizens have a right to know what's going on." The council spent the last days of its discussions seeking to balance the main concerns of South Philadelphia residents -- traffic and parking -- with plans for the stadiums. "Twenty-nine years ago [when the Vet was constructed], the people there were saddled with the stadium and really taken advantage of," Vice-President of the South Philadelphia Communities Civic Association John Palmieri said. "Now, I think that everyone walked away from the table happy." Community concerns were mollified by the teams' agreement to jointly pay $22.5 million over 30 years for a special services district to clean up after sports fans. The city is fronting approximately $394 million for the deal, to be provided by a tax on car rentals and increased tax revenues from the stadiums. "If attendance levels do not meet projections, the taxpayers will eat the cost," Kenney said. The state is contributing about $180 million. Still, a $44 million funding shortfall remains, but negotiations continue, according to Noreen Shanfelter, vice-president of communications for the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation. While many critics question the wisdom of public subsidies for stadiums, few appear willing to change the status quo. "No public official wants to be the guy on whose watch the Eagles or the Phillies departed," Penn Political Science and History professor Theodore Hershberg said. The result of negotiations will be a 66,000 seat, state-of-the-art stadium for the Eagles, complete with three-story-tall video walls in each end zone and open corners. Construction, which was approved by the planning commission last week, will soon begin to allow for a projected opening in August 2003. "The Eagles have been planning on a South Philly site for a long time," said Richard Lombardo, director of development planning and zoning for the Planning Commission. "They were always ready to move ahead," he added. A stipulation in the teams' leases required the city to deal with both the Eagles and Phillies simultaneously, meaning that the Eagles could not proceed until a site was finally selected for the ballpark. The new 45,000 seat venue for the Phillies is currently in the design phase. The ground will be broken for the construction late this summer, according to Joe Giles, director of business development for the Phillies. Stephen Mullin, a Penn City Planning professor and former Rendell commerce director, called the stadiums part of the "civic infrastructure." "I think that the new stadiums will have a positive effect that will spill over to Penn," Mullin said. "This may well be more important to cities on the decline." The grand opening of the stadiums is scheduled for April 2004.