New stadiums run into legal troubles

The future of the new Eagles and Phillies stadiums now hinges on reversing an Aug. 10 ruling that says the teams did not adequately seek multiple bidders for the project.

However, some are now saying that last month's decision is a misinterpretation of state law.

Pennsylvania law requires that at least three bidders be sought for such projects, after which the teams can negotiate with any of the bidders. This rule applies to public projects which, like the Eagles and Phillies stadiums, also use a significant amount of private funding.

But despite the use of private sector funds, the Commonwealth Court held that the construction must proceed under older state rules, which say that projects fully funded by public money must use the lowest bidder and more complicated procedures in seeking bidders.

Phillies attorney David L. Cohen maintained that the court was in error.

"I view this as a manageable problem," Cohen said. "But I view this as manageable because the Commonwealth Court, no matter how well intentioned, misinterpreted the statute."

David Montgomery, president and CEO of the Phillies, said in an affidavit that the ruling will make construction of a new Phillies stadium impossible.

"We have less than 32 months left to complete design and construction of this mammoth project," Montgomery said.

Because the stadiums are on a fast-track schedule, the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear the case on an emergency basis.

Montgomery said that failure to complete the stadium by the start of the 2004 baseball season would endanger the private funding for the project.

"The availability of private financing for the ballpark project is premised on our ability to open the ballpark for the start of the 2004 baseball season," he said.

In his affidavit, Eagles President Joe Banner emphasized his organization's time constraints.

"It has always been an essential term of the Eagles stadium project that our new football stadium be completed and open for the start of the 2003 NFL season," Banner said. "Our construction schedule is very challenging and cannot accommodate any further delay."

To date, the Eagles organization has spent $40 million of its own money and has authorized over $100 million in contracts.

And although construction of the Phillies stadium has not begun yet, the team has already spent $16 million on the project and is spending at the rate of $5 million a month.

According to Eagles lobbyist Joseph McLaughlin, proceeding according to the lengthy traditional bidding system could make construction of the stadiums financially impractical.

"The conventional wisdom about the traditional public bidding system is that it adds 15 to 20 percent to the cost of the project," McLaughlin said. "I think the impact on the projects would be extremely serious."

He said that the Eagles organization is pleased that the case was going before the state Supreme Court.

"I think they're encouraged by the fact that the state Supreme Court has taken the case," McLaughlin said.

Although the court asked for briefs to be submitted by Sept. 24, Cohen said that they will probably be submitted even earlier due to the fast-track construction schedule.

"I think there will probably be an effort to get the briefs in before that," Cohen said.

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