Albuquerque voters will be deciding this fall on whether to spend $50 million on a new stadium for the New Mexico United USL team, after the city council voted 7-2 to put it on the November ballot. (KOAT-TV called it “a unanimous decision,” which will come as some surprise to councilmembers Trudy Jones and Brook Bassan, who both voted no.) Public comments at last night’s council meeting were entirely in support of the stadium project, or were mostly in support but comments pre-submitted were largely against, depending on which TV station report you believe, are reporters even watching the same hearings, man?
As discussed here previously, $50 million would shatter the record for biggest public subsidy ever for a USL team. Mayor Tim Keller, however, calls it a reasonable price tag because “an Albuquerque multi-use stadium will be an asset that New Mexico can be proud of, creating opportunities for affordable family fun for decades to come” — which, it’s true, doesn’t actually say why city taxpayers should be on the hook for $50 million worth of bond payments on a $60-70 million stadium, but only some sort of hater of affordable family fun would nitpick a thing like that.
The stadium bond bill is here, and includes a community benefits agreement to build a community healthcare facility and “micro-unit incubator for artists and small business merchants” and a local hiring program, but nothing about whether NM United owner Peter Trevisani would pay rent or property taxes or any other kind of revenue sharing to the city to pay off the $50 million in bonds. If it’s true that Trevisani won’t kick in anything (aside from maybe a few million to top off any additional stadium costs over what the city and state would pay), the bond payments would otherwise come entirely out of Albuquerque’s gross receipts tax, a kind of sales tax on both goods and services that has drawn criticism for already being unsustainably high.
All this for a soccer team that is already in place in Albuquerque, in a league that has announced plans to expand from its current 31 teams to 60-70 teams, so it’s not really in a position to be picky about what kinds of stadiums they play in. This should be quite the interesting ballot campaign.
ok so I know I was late relative to most North American sports fans in taking up soccer. Growing up playing american football, soccer was something I resisted until I started working with British counter parts at my old job. That being said I don’t get this gold rush with USL teams. I think we can all agree that the MLS despite calling itself “major league” is actually a minor league. We can all agree that the NBA, NHL, and MLB champions are the best teams in the world in their sport, the MLS Champ is probably not even in the top 100 teams. So I am not seeing how a USL team which is even lower than MLS adds enough to the quality of life in a city to justify this investment. Even the hardcore soccer fans I know don’t watch USL. Cleveland had a USL team and the only reason I knew the were there was because my friend was on the school board of the city where they rented a high school stadium to play in
Well, at least Albuquerque is putting the subsidy to a public vote; unlike other municipalities that would vote in house only, taxpayers be damned!
I believe New Mexico law requires it, though I haven’t confirmed that 100%.
I was actually in attendance at a New Mexico United game a few weeks ago while visiting Albuquerque when Trevisani (introduced as “El Jefe” by the ballpark announcer) and Mayor Keller held some sort of pep rally at halftime to drum up support for the upcoming council vote. It was all pretty contentless, as to be expected, but the one thing that threw me was when Trevisani told the crowd that he was “not allowed” to own or pay for the new stadium, and that was why public spending was so crucial. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a team owner use this argument before, and I am wondering whether this is a restriction imposed by USL to force localities to pony up funding.
That has to be the weirdest owner statement ever…..
Oh please oh please let someone have captured this on phone video…
The math is bonkers. It costs $12 million for an expansion USL team, and this team is not new. What kind of city would say “thank you for investing your $12 million business in our community, here is a $50 million stadium for your troubles?” You can let them leave and replace them for much less if you value having a soccer team so much. To be fair to the community, it is the rare city that draws a reasonable number of fans. Given how little USL players make, it would probably take a long time to cover the difference between spending $12 million and $50 million. It might not be a ponzie scheme, but it is some kind of racket.
Would this stadium be used for the Lobos football team or the New Mexico Bowl? (Just so that there’s even more misery in one location). I don’t think it’d justify the cost but it’d at least provide better PR cover. If not, it makes this deal look even worse.