Still, the mayor and city attorney Hill were not through. They appealed to the State Tax Commission, which overturned the tax control board`s decision. Fair Tax issued a hurried call for the necessary funds to appeal the tax commission`s decision, but a legal brief was not filed in time, and the decision was upheld automatically.
The mayor, finally, had won. The stadium would be built, even though the financing delay made it impossible to meet the original April, 1986, deadline. And although the mayor had also angered much of the population and split the Democratic Party, the bottom line in politics, as in baseball, is winning, and the mayor had won the financing battle. So the lease was signed with the bank. The check arrived, and contractors were hired. The South Bend Tribune began a play-by-play on construction when it began in August, 1986.
Wendel and the Staleys, who had endeared themselves to some of the power structure during their visits to South Bend, meanwhile had made a lot of promises to the mayor and city hall: The Staleys were thinking of buying a condo in South Bend, where they could stay when visiting ”their team.”
Wendel said at a press conference that some of the ballplayers–those 19-year- olds making $900 a month–might even ”marry some of your daughters.”
Could anyone in South Bend have asked for anything more?
The rush to get the stadium ready for the new target of opening day in 1987 even pushed the city`s chief engineer to encourage contractors to work around the clock. Temporary lights were installed as workmen raced to meet their deadline.
Ken Harrelson, then general manager of the White Sox, paid a visit to South Bend and was feted. Yes, the White Sox would move their Appleton farm club to South Bend. The move made much sense, according to knowledgeable baseball sources. South Bend is a sports-minded town. On summer evenings it seems that half the town is playing softball on scores of well-maintained softball diamonds.
Cubs and White Sox games, however, can be viewed locally on cable television, and in South Bend a baseball buff can also watch the New York Mets on WOR and the Atlanta Braves on WTBS, in addition to major league Games of the Week on NBC and ABC. Finley argues that cable is precisely what is killing minor-league baseball. ”Who wants to watch 19-year-old kids learning to play at the Class A level. . . ?”
”Rookie leagues have more seasoned players than Class A,” says Stan Isle, veteran writer for the Sporting News. But no matter how bad the quality of the baseball, Isle says youngsters in Class A ball are ”pursuing the American dream. They don`t make much money, but they can dream about the potential. About making the big leagues.”
Isle says the addition of the a minor-league franchise to a community can be likened to attracting a small industry. He estimates that a parent club spends more than $200,000 each season on a Class A team. How many of those players will make it to the majors? Finley says 5 percent, but Isle contends the figure is even smaller–”about 3 percent.”
Finley, who bought his major-league franchise in 1960 for $3.5 million and sold it in 1980 for $13 million, believes the big-money potential is gone from minor-league baseball. The only person who can make it, he says, is the franchise owner, if he or she can get someone to swing the real estate end.
Jack Gould, vice president-baseball administration for the Chicago White Sox, agrees that it`s the franchise owners who make money in the minors, because the major-league team pays all salaries and the franchise owners get the parking fees, ticket revenue, food and beverage sales and ”even part of the national television contract.”
Why do franchise owners of a minor-league team get cut in on the TV contract? ”If you understood how baseball works, you`d be president of the United States,” Gould says.
Shortly after Mayor Parent sat back to savor his ”victory,” the bomb dropped. In September of 1986, after stadium construction was beyond the point of no return, the Staleys sold their franchise to two New Yorkers for
”approximately $450,000,” according to Spelius and Gould.
The new franchise owners, psychologist Eric Margenau and literary agent Edward Jay Acton, also own the Watertown, N.Y., Pirates, a Class A team in the New York-Penn League. They took a hard line with the city of South Bend. Finish the stadium, the mayor was told, and then we`ll talk terms. In May the mayor called a press conference at the stadium to announce that ”an agreement” had been reached with the franchise owners. A formal lease for use of the stadium was expected to be signed this summer, the mayor declared.
Robert Staley, who is a marketing manager with A.E. Staley Mfg. Co. in Decatur, is reluctant to discuss details of the pullout from South Bend and the sale of the baseball franchise. ”We have never really discussed that, but we will at the appropriate time,” he says. When would that be? Shortly? ”No, at the appropriate time,” he repeated.
Staley did say he had no plans to buy another Class A minor-league franchise. He confirms that the original purchase price for the South Bend franchise was $20,000 but refuses to be pinned down on the profits made when the franchise was sold to the two New Yorkers. ”It`s not for me to discuss,” he insists, referring all inquiries on the transaction to the purchasers.
Staley says that his wife, Debby, owns 75 percent of the corporation that was set up to buy and later sell the franchise, and Wendel the other 25 percent. He was unsure whether the corporation was later dissolved.
When the stadium is in operation, the city will have to provide trash pick-up, parking and electricity for the stadium. Then there is liability insurance, but this issue is still unresolved because it still hasn`t been determined who is going to pick up the tab.
Midwest League team owners indicate they pay between $40,000 and $50,000 each year for use of a stadium. In addition, some cities may get up to 7 1/2 percent of gross receipts from ticket sales. In South Bend, these details are still being worked out. Sources indicate that at best the city will get $50,000 for stadium rent and perhaps another $10,000 from ticket sales.
”Total gross income for the city will be under $100,000 a year,” one source estimates. ”There will not be nearly enough revenue generated to pay the debt service of $779,000 on the bank loan.”
The city`s debt service cost could substantially exceed $779,000 a year, according to David Roos, an aide to the mayor, if the Internal Revenue Service rules that under the new tax code the bank cannot treat the leasing arrangement with the city like a bond issue–that is, with income to the bank being tax free. If the bank has to pay taxes on income it generates from the loan to South Bend, a clause in the original agreement will push the interest rate from 9.25 percent to more than 13 percent, according to Fair Tax Inc.
”We`re still awaiting a ruling,” Roos says.
Waite says he projects that city hall will have an operating deficit of more than $500,000 a year on the stadium. ”This is hardly economic development,” he says.
The facility, named the Stanley Coveleski Regional Stadium after a South Bend resident who was elected to baseball`s Hall of Fame, was completed at the end of June. The mayor`s aides are still trying to find community groups to use the facility this summer.
Mayor Parent does not return telephone calls to his office these days. He leaves public comments on the stadium to aides.
There`s little doubt, though, that other Midwest League teams will be impressed with the final product. The stadium figures to be the showcase of Class A baseball, and Spelius believes it may be one of the finest minor-league stadiums in the country. ”I have only seen pictures,” he said, ”but it looks great.”
That is precisely what angers a lot of citizens. Many of the high-paying industrial jobs have left the city, and hamburger stands have been built on two of the choice corners downtown. ”We`re living in a hamburger economy and cannot afford a $15 million stadium,” Waite laments.
Roos denies that the overall stadium cost will reach $15 million. ”That includes interest costs,” Roos says. Apparently, South Bend does not figure interest payment as a true direct cost. He says he cannot project a final figure because ”changes are being made from time to time” on the project. Roos says there will be on-site parking for 400 cars and notes that there will be ”private viewing boxes”–his term for sky boxes.
Some members of Fair Tax Inc. want the stadium sold to private investors so the taxpayers can recover the stadium money. But Fair Tax spokesmen always have stressed that South Bend`s citizens are not opposed to having a stadium built–the use of tax dollars is the issue.
Meanwhile, according to Roos, the White Sox will assemble a team of young players–some not yet in their system–to form the South Bend team in early 1988 as the league expands to 14 teams. (Rockford is slated to be the other expansion franchise.)
Margenau says he has signed a three-year player development agreement with the White Sox, running from 1988 through 1990. Plans to move the Appleton franchise to South Bend were dropped when the Sox dissolved their working arrangement with the Appleton group, which is now affiliated with the Kansas City Royals. The Sox have Class A teams in the Florida State League (Daytona Beach) and in the Carolina League (the Peninsula team in Hampton, Va.), but Gould indicates the White Sox probably will switch its Daytona team to South Bend. The managers, coaches and some of the players will be sent to South Bend when and if the franchise owners reach an agreement with the city over use of the stadium. ”We have to know by November,” Gould says.
The stadium should be ready to be shown to visitors who arrive for the International Special Olympics to be held at Notre Dame beginning Friday. The university continues to keep a safe distance from the controversy. ”We have our own baseball fields,” says Roger Valdiserri, the school`s director of sports information.
Some baseball observers believe that college baseball is superior to Class A play because most of the players are older and more seasoned. A few of them have made the jump directly to the majors.
But attendance is another matter. Notre Dame has an enrollment of nearly 10,000 students, yet only about 500 attend university baseball games, according to Valdiserri. This spring Notre Dame ended its baseball season with a 15-29 record.
Would Notre Dame play in the new stadium? ”Oh, maybe against Michigan State or some strong team,” Valdiserri replied. ”We would consider it.”
In South Bend it is difficult to find anyone who supports the stadium wholeheartedly. Advertising executive Robert McPhee says it is ”the most asinine project in the history of the city.” He cannot understand how city hall could move forward on a multimillion-dollar project ”without any idea of the income the stadium would generate. Now you know why I moved to (suburban) Granger. I don`t want my taxes to pay for that stadium.”
And there are those who fear that four years down the road the city will have an empty stadium and still have six years left on its payments to the bank.
Milton Ries, owner of Ries Furniture Co., across from the stadium site, says he views the project with ”mixed emotions.” Ries has been at this location since 1935 and fears ballpark patrons will take up the 30 parking spaces available to customers. ”We`re open three nights a week, and our parking lot is going to become a problem.”
Ries says he hopes the stadium becomes economically viable but wishes they had built it on the outskirts of town. He concedes that he might get some indirect benefits from foot traffic that will have to pass his store to get to the stadium.
George Seifer, owner of Seifer Lock & Safe Inc., which sits behind the center-field wall, refused to sell his property to the city because the
”price they offered was too low.” He echoes Ries` sentiments about the outlying location.
Seifer says he tried working with the city but to no avail. ”I asked them to find me another corner lot, with parking, adjacent to a traffic signal. They couldn`t, so I decided to stay where I am.” He is building a fence around his parking lot.
The political price has been high. C.J. Pajakowski, the then-Democratic political boss of St. Joseph County, was asked in March of 1986–in the midst of the furor over the stadium–whom he was going to run for mayor in the upcoming elections.
”I don`t know,” Pajakowski replied. Then he added: ”You know, I am a baseball fan. I go up to Chicago six or seven times a year to see a game. But for the life of me, I can`t find anyone to support this stadium.”
Pajakowski, the dean of South Bend politics who a few months later was to be feted by Democratic leaders from throughout the state, paused and then said slowly: ”You know, Roger (Parent) has had some good ideas. And he has had a few dumb ones. This stadium is one of his dumb ideas. I can`t find any support for it at all.”
Then, returning to the question of whom the Democrats would put up to run for mayor, Pajakowski replied, ”Don`t worry. We`ll find someone.”
It was in this setting that the mayor announced he would not seek a third term. Other informed sources within the party who did not wish to be named say polls indicated that the mayor could not win re-election.
Seeking his fourth term in office, veteran councilman Joe Serge, also a Democrat and the president of the Common Council, went down to defeat in the May, 1987, primary. On seeing the election returns, he said simply, ”That stadium defeated us.”
Beverlie Beck, an ally of the mayor and president of the council in 1985-86 when the stadium debate was raging, sided with the mayor and insisted that the stadium be built downtown. She, also, was turned out of office in the May primary. Beck had complained just before the election that ”none of us wants to run against an empty stadium.” It turned out she was right.
The citizens, the voters, had the last word after all.
With Mayor Parent not seeking a third term, a handful of political candidates sought the Democratic nomination in the mayoral primaries, and two ran for the GOP nod, including Waite, the original stadium opponent. (The primaries were won by Democrat Joseph Kernan and Republican Carl Baxmeyer.)
When pressed by local reporters about the stadium, most of the candidates looked a little uncomfortable and said something like, ”Well, it`s built, so we`ll just have to live with it and make the best possible use of it.” Waite said if he became mayor he would try to sell it. Parent has taken a very quiet posture in recent months. He and Hill have never explained to the business establishment how they could commit to build a stadium without having a firm commitment from the franchise owners. Down at the local taverns the boys sit around and wink at each other and say, ”The mayor was had.”
As the 1987 baseball season moves past the halfway point, few people in South Bend are talking baseball. They are only talking baseball stadium.
