Late in 1997, prior to the completion of the Baseball facility known as Tucson Electric Park, it was still officially known as Veterans Memorial Stadium. That is the name that was sold to the voters. That is the name that was promised to the voters of Pima County. That is the name that was used to promote the sale of the bonds and effectuate the taxing mechanism to pay for the joint. That is the name that was used to form an entity known as a Stadium District, which is shorthand for Sports Socialism.
And that is the name; Veterans Memorial Stadium that was surreptitiously removed in the middle of the night, with no voter input, and handed over to Tucson Electric for an amount never to be published.
Now 11 years later with three ‘Dear John’ letters from our spring training mistresses, we have a vacant ballpark and a bankrupt stadium district that had to borrow $6.5 million dollars from the General Fund to simply keep the lights on. Might one of the readers suggest who will be repaying that loan to the taxpayers? True Socialism is more egalitarian and immensely more beneficial to its citizens. Tucson Electric Park, and the structure of the Stadium District could well be defined as tainted sports socialism as it has only benefited a protected class—baseball and its assigns. The power company being one of those assigns.
I was the Executive Director of the Pima County Sports Authority in those days. It was an assignment that I was told by the late Dan Felix would be akin to “bringing peace to the middle east”, as the City and County officials could not even sit in the same room, because of the immense enmity between the municipalities. The promises that were made to the broad base of youth and amateur sports were abound; all to win their hearts and minds for their support of the new stadium. The promises were made by the ruling class- Baseball Spring Training; a prima facie superior entity that imagined itself to be able to perform salvific acts of economic development were we to just allow them to tax RV rentals in Pima County. Had they consulted with the RV folks in advance they may not have expired of terminal sports narcissism. The RV community was insulted at such arrogance and lack of basic courtesy to give them a “heads up” of what was to be a financial mugging. They brought in their in house attorneys from the national association and squelched the plan, leaving the Stadium District without a collateralized revenue stream. All three major league teams knew this and had a sense of angst about Tucson from the very beginning of the first season.
The Veteran community was not sought out either prior to the perfunctory removal of the name Veterans Memorial Stadium.
In the fall of 1997, I was on a goodwill bus tour to Nogales,Az to promote the new stadium. I sat next to the Architect who had the uncomfortable duty of removing the name “Veterans Memorial Stadium” from the blue line architectural building plans. The name was sold to Tucson Electric to help pay the bills. He was deeply embarrassed, as he remembered how proud his father and uncle, both WWll veterans, were of this new project.
I have no beef with naming rights. They are a financially prudent revenue instrument. It is the process that was slimy and a breach of faith to those whose hearts and minds were persuaded to vote for the project known to them as Veterans Stadium.
Insulting Veterans and winter visitors may not be considered good karma. Tucson Electric Park was star crossed from the beginning. From the marginally ethical eminent domain of church property;(Jim Click bailed them out), to the promises to create jobs for South Tucson youth,(not!), its entire history is streaked with operational confabulations and outright PR efforts to marginalize all other sporting entities in Tucson, so as to monopolize the leisure time sports dollar.
Any new Sports Commission that if formed for the sole purpose of saving baseball is a Trojan Horse- then and now. The lip-service they render to other amateur,youth and semi-pro sports is pure poppycock, then and now. Many of the organizers of the newly formed Sports Authority are the same hombres, and they do not have a track record of giving a hoot about anyone but themselves and job security in the industry. Ask them for any prepared documents they have outlining the actual commitments, not plans, they have for supporting “other” sports. You will quickly note how vacant the promise is and the lack of collective will to be anything but a baseball commission. All else is as slick as the public relations department of the power company. I do not blame them however for wanting to salvage their good name.
My informal but broad based demographic poll of Tucson and Pima County residents, is that there is a near zero tolerance for another tax for baseball.
As Doc Holliday once said, “my hypocrisy knows no bounds”. During the City Budget hearings, the hotel industry rolled out their impassioned testimonies about the apocalyptic effects of an increase in bed tax. Yet, they will roll over for baseball. Wassssup?
Now let me qualify this rant. I love baseball. I love its entrenchment in our culture. I was a bat boy for the Cleveland, Indians. I managed a project in Tucson that was owned with Cleveland sports management money gained from baseball players. I was raised playing American Legion Baseball in Dixon, Illinios, the hometown of Ronald Reagan who was a sports announcer and role model for my uncle Bill who also announced baseball. My uncle Bill used to take me to the Cubs games as often as we could get into Chicago. He told me the story of the National Anthem first being sung in a public arena, at the 1918 World Series between the Cubs and the Boston Red Sox, as the whole stadium crowd rose to their feet in honor of WWl veterans. I imagine that day in my mind each time I stand to sing the National Anthem. I am a combat veteran of the United States Marine Corps. We remember things. That is the reason I tell you now of the rudeness of the actions of baseball organizers and their empty promises to our community.
Give us back the name Veteran Memorial Stadium, and you may earn some goodwill.
