Election Day Has Key Ramifications in Sports
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

If National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern has a late night tomorrow, it’s understandable. Stern will be watching election day referendum results from two NBA cities that will directly impact the Sacramento Kings and the Seattle Supersonics, as well as Senate and Congressional races nationally that could have a direct affect on how the NBA and other leagues do business.
Election day has become as important to sports leagues and associations as championship events. It has become a referendum on sports projects even though politicians now try to keep stadium and arena initiatives off the ballot because getting the public to agree on raising taxes for sports facilities is a tough sell.
In Sacramento, a two-part referendum proposes a quarter of a cent general tax hike for the next 15 years, then asks voters whether they would like to see the estimated $1.2 billion in proceeds go to building an arena and other community projects.
But there is a major problem in Sacramento that arena proponents cannot overcome. The Sacramento Kings owners, the Maloof brothers, are not on board with the arena project and have walked away from talks that were supposed to end in an agreement that would ensure that the team would be partners with the city if the measures pass.
The city had hoped to complete a deal with the Maloofs by October 6 and a massive $2 million arena advertising campaign with some funding from the Maloofs was supposed to be unveiled. Neither has happened. The Maloofs and the city began fighting over development surrounding the arena, the city wanted commercial and residential building to ring the new facility to spur downtown development but the Maloofs, who would get just about every nickel of revenue inside the building, wanted the land for an 8,000 space parking lot. The Maloofs wanted the big parking lot because they would keep all of the money generated from the lot. The Maloofs wanted the same parking deal they have now at the old arena.
That might not seem like a deal breaker until you do the math. Assuming the Maloofs fill the lot and charge $10 a car, that would mean $80,000 a night multiplied by 41 and you get more than $3 million annually from parking alone just from Kings events. The Maloofs would also get parking money from non-Kings events at the building, so the parking lot issue has become significant and a deal breaker.
Arena proponents have changed their tactics without the Maloofs and the money behind the campaign to say the referendum is about Sacramento’s future. Arena backers face an uphill battle because polls suggest that both ballot initiatives will face an overwhelming defeat.
But in sports, saying no to a stadium or an arena proposal doesn’t mean no. In the mid-1990s, voters in Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee voted against funding for new baseball parks and in Pittsburgh’s case a new football stadium as well. State politicians in Washington and Wisconsin decided that the voters really didn’t intend to kill the ballparks and overturned the vote by taking it out of the voters’ hands and passing state legislation raising taxes to build ballparks in Seattle and Milwaukee.
In Pittsburgh, Plan B was enacted by city and Allegheny County politicians and money was found to build a new baseball park and a football stadium. Pittsburgh and Allegheny County residents were still paying off the debt on Three Rivers Stadium when the two new parks opened. Three Rivers Stadium was blown up but the debt service wasn’t.
Should the Sacramento arena referendum fail, local politicians will probably come up with another plan, maybe within hours of the defeat. In Seattle, voters will not be asked whether or not they want to put up money for an arena. Instead they will vote yes or no on Initiative 91, an ordinance that would prohibit Seattle from “providing or leasing facilities or other goods, services, or real property to professional sports organizations at below fair value, and providing a method to enforce this restriction.
“Fair value” is defined as “no less than the rate of return on a U.S. Treasury Bond of thirty years duration.”
Initiative 91 made it to the November 7 ballot after a group called Citizens for More Important Things got enough signatures to put the measure before voters as a response to former Supersonics and WNBA Storm owner Howard Schultz’s request for a new arena. The group does not want to subsidize any more major league sports teams in Seattle and is against building a new basketball arena.
Schultz sold the team to Oklahoma businessman Clayton Bennett who, naturally, is less than impressed with the I-91 measure. Bennett has four years left on his lease with Seattle for the use of the city owned arena, which was renovated in the mid-1990s. Should the I-91 proposal pass, Bennett, should he decide to stay in the Pacific Northwest, could move to a Seattle suburb or look at other cities who are seeking an NBA team.
Meanwhile in Ohio, an important vote will affect the state’s gambling and sports industry. Ohio is not exactly the center of the horse-racing industry, but the failing industry will be watching to see how voters handle Issue 3, which would change the Ohio Constitution to allow 3,500 slots at each of Ohio’s seven racetracks. The horse-racing industry has been worrying as more and more casinos open around the country; they are losing more and more of their share of gambling money to the casino industry. Additionally, Ohio racetracks have been losing customers to West Virginia tracks that have both racing and slot machines, and Ohio racetrack owners are having a tough time getting quality horses in their fields because they cannot provide the purses that are available in West Virginia and in New York.
The Maryland horse racing industry figures to be following the Ohio vote. They have been asking Annapolis lawmakers for additional gambling at that state’s racetracks so that more money could be pumped into the tracks. Maryland also has been losing customers to West Virginia. The Maryland horse-racing community has been warning that without casino-style gambling at the tracks and the money it brings, there may not be enough dollars available to stage the Pimilico, the second jewel of Thoroughbred Racing’s Triple Crown and that it could lose the race to another track that has access to more revenues.
Two other Ohio slot machine locations would be in downtown Cleveland, an area that was supposed to have had an economic renaissance with the building of a baseball park, football stadium, an indoor arena, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — all built with various local taxes. The downtown sports construction hasn’t helped Cleveland’s economy, and now there is a hope gambling will, should Issue 3 pass.
Who controls Congress is also a big issue for sports. Should the Republicans remain in power, there is little likelihood that legislation would be passed to change cable TV regulations and this sports owners can count on status quo. But should Democrats win, there could be a change in cable regulations and Congress may look into the tax exempt status of the NCAA which could be a major problem for big time college sports.
Election day has become one of the biggest dates on the sports calendar.