Boise Coalition sobbing in its Cracker Jacks. It served as its motivation.
THEY WANNA PLAY BALL The BBC, a coalition of Boise business, civic and community leaders, want a new multi-purpose sports and entertainment complex. It goes to painstaking efforts not to call the dream facility “a baseball stadium.” Sure, it would host as many as 30-35 baseball games a year, but BBC officials say they gain greater support by touting a new facility as a location for high school football, minor league soccer, concerts and even an outdoor skating rink. “Think of this as your Rockefeller Center in Boise,” said Rahr during a Feb. 15 community pitch. As for a location, the coalition recommended to Boise officials that an ideal site would either be a parcel of property at 27th Street and Fairview Avenue, currently owned by St. Luke’s Hospital, or another parcel on 30th Street, owned by the city, which used to be the location of Roundtree Chevrolet. Can a new stadium, or lack thereof, influence whether a baseball team stays or leaves town? More than a few interested parties took note when Hillboro, Ore., announced on June 19 that it will steal the Yakima Bears away from its Washington home once Hillsboro cuts the ribbon on its new $15-million baseball stadium, funded through city backed bonds. Yakima is a member of the Northwest League, which includes the Boise Hawks. Bieter, a three-term mayor with an astute ability to test the waters of public opinion, said his constituents tell him “all the time that they would love to see a new sports facility.” “The bulk of them want to see a stadium— at least those who feel strong enough to talk to me about it,” said Bieter. “I recently met with a group from Boise Young Professionals and asked them about this very issue. They were very receptive. And I must tell you, I didn’t think their support was a foregone conclusion. If there’s any likelihood that something like a stadium could happen, young professionals are the ones who are going to need to support it.” But Bieter added that a post-recession Boise, which has weathered the economy better than most municipalities, would still be hard-pressed to pay for such a venture. “For us to do the heavy lifting is very unlikely,” said Bieter. “Even if we had the authority, it would probably involve a two-thirds majority vote. Or we would have to find the money in the city’s general funds, and I just don’t see that happening.” Bieter said any strategy sessions surrounding a proposed stadium are at the “unsexy stage” of crunching numbers. “Let’s get to the dollars and cents of all of this. That’s the phase we’re in now,” said Bieter. “But I want to be clear. The city’s discussions have been limited to a potential site for the stadium. Our participation beyond that is unlikely. I think this project is going to need some philanthropy and we just haven’t gotten there yet.” Securing deep pocketed philanthropists or strong community support for a new stadium is more often a science rather than an art. In fact, Boise Weekly learned that a team of Boise State researchers is working behind the scenes to craft different stadium scenarios to grab greater attention. WWW. B OISEWEEKLY.C O M
BY THE NUMBERS “Quite often, we’re asked to perform economic studies to confirm the benefits of keeping or growing a sports team. But we just can’t do that,” said Don Holley, Boise State economics professor. “Deep down in their hearts, sports team owners or those who support a new stadium would like us to do a cost-benefit analysis that proves that a team or a stadium is a big plus to a community and that the benefits more than cover any costs. I know what they would like us to say, but we just can’t do that.” Though he couldn’t share too many details, Holley confirmed that a new analysis, commissioned from Boise State economists, would involve a possible new home for the Boise Hawks. “We’re going to study something we call
‘collective decision-making.’ There’s some people over in the engineering computer science department that will assist us on the project,” said Holley. “We’ve been asked to consider the baseball team and different locations of a possible new stadium. And we’re going to create different models to gauge how the public reacts to each one.” Collective decisions usually gain greater support when a project is tailored to a community’s desire. But Holley also said that when he and his colleagues at Boise State’s College of Business and Economics crunch the numbers, they leave the anecdotes to others. “When a mayor brags about how important baseball, basketball or hockey is to the city, it’s very, very subjective, and we can’t measure that,” said Holley. “But we can tell
them how important an actual sports operation is to the economy. That’s measurable.” As an example, Holley was the lead researcher on the 2011 analysis of Boise’s CenturyLink Arena, showing that the facility and its sports franchises pump about $7.7 million into the local economy each year. According to the study, CenturyLink’s three operations— the arena, Idaho Steelheads hockey team and Idaho Stampede basketball team—account for the equivalent of 50 full-time jobs. “But indirectly, you include some of the jobs at Boise hotels and restaurants and certainly some sales tax revenue,” said Holley. Bieter, who grew up playing baseball and football, said when the Steelheads came to town, he couldn’t immediately relate to ice hockey. “We didn’t have much hockey when I
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