Posted on 01/14/2024 9:03:44 AM PST by MtnClimber
Sports fans like me love gleaming new stadiums. But few of us are aware that the deals made to secure their financing now come with discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) quotas attached. I was relieved last year when officials reached a deal to keep my beloved Bills in Buffalo, where I grew up. But I was unaware of the associated DEI requirements until I noticed recent news coverage on stadium concessions preferences for women, minorities, and other groups. Apparently, such quotas are now common not just in New York and California but also in “purple” states like Nevada, and even red ones like Florida and Tennessee.
Buffalo’s stadium deal—whereby taxpayers pick up more than half of the $1.4 billion tab for a new Highmark Stadium—came with a community benefits agreement (CBA) that outlines a program to “encourage participation” from “targeted groups,” which include “people of color, women, veterans, LGBTQ+, low-income, and other targeted members of the community.” The deal stipulates that “thirty percent of all monies paid to retailers, vendors, and service companies used in stadium maintenance and operations be paid to MWBE [minority- and women-owned business enterprises] firms.”
The agreement cites New York state law, which stipulates that minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises can be categorized as such only if their owners have a “personal net worth that does not exceed fifteen million dollars.” It’s unclear how they chose the $15 million figure, but it’s striking to consider that businesspeople approaching that net worth would be given advantages over their competition.
Thirty percent of the food products used by the stadium concessionaire under the CBA must also be from MWBE food-service companies, which must be at least 51 percent owned by . . . well, essentially anyone but a straight white man who isn’t a veteran or disabled. Wondering how a business becomes a “certified LGBTQ business enterprise?” The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce offers certifications that it says give LGBT businesses a “a competitive advantage to succeed.” The chamber chapter in Tampa Bay, where I live, charges an $899 certification fee and advertises a “matchmakers program” that introduces members to corporate supplier-diversity representatives.
I contacted both groups several times to ask about the verification process and how certification helps LGBT businesses win stadium contracts, but neither responded. I also tried to determine if LGBT businesses bidding on jobs at the new stadium near Buffalo need to be verified to gain MBWE status. The press secretary to Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz didn’t answer my questions but instead provided a lengthy statement asserting that “inclusive participation” in the construction of the new Bills stadium will “remain a priority for all stakeholders.”
Other recent stadium deals also come with DEI strings attached. In my adopted hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida, the development team that’s building a new baseball park for the Tampa Bay Rays has pledged to use 10 percent–30 percent small and/or minority business enterprises (SBE and MBE) for the project. The city council passed an ordinance in 2019 expanding the SBE program beyond ethnic minorities to include LGBTQ business owners. The mayor’s LGBTQ liaison said that such businesses will have SBE status for stadium-related procurement but didn’t confirm whether verification through an LGBT chamber was required.
Meantime, in Tennessee, the NFL’s Titans described their new $2.1 billion domed football stadium as “the largest opportunity for inclusion in Tennessee history.” The team promises an “open and inclusive” process that will result in at least 25 percent “DBE [Disadvantaged Business Enterprise] inclusion,” as per city of Nashville procurement code requirements. To be eligible for DBE in the state, a business must have gross receipts of less than $10 million and fewer than 99 employees. Nashville mayor David Briley signed an executive order in 2019 extending many of the same benefits that women- and minority-owned businesses receive to LGBT-owned businesses, including contracting and procurement programs. A spokesperson for the mayor said that the executive order didn’t apply to the stadium deal because it wasn’t a contract with the Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County.
In Oakland, an African American-led sports and entertainment consortium made a $5 billion proposal to turn the Coliseum complex into what it calls a “vehicle for economic equity and social justice.” The Oakland A’s rejected the proposal and plan instead to move to Las Vegas, where the Democrat-controlled Nevada Assembly recently voted to contribute $380 million toward a new $1.5 billion stadium on the Strip. Republican governor Joe Lombardo signed the public-financing package into law, but others on the right and some on the left dissented. “Using taxpayer money on pet projects instead of private capital is socialism,” lamented Republican state senator Ira Hansen, who represents Sparks.
The conservative Nevada Globe reports that the deal passed thanks to a DEI-heavy CBA that swung the votes of some Nevada Democrats. Among other things, it stipulates that 51 percent of construction work hours and 60 percent of event-operations work must be performed by minority, female, or veteran workers. Nevada law defines minority groups as “racial or ethnic minority groups, the disabled, or persons who identify as LGBTQ.”
I’ve attended many football and baseball games at the stadiums deemed antiquated by team owners in Buffalo and St. Petersburg. I was excited about the prospect of the new facilities—though I know that public financing is almost always a bad idea—because I want these teams to stay in my real and adopted hometowns. But the more I learn about the deals that ensured their funding, the less I like them.
Pro sports are about as pure a meritocracy as you’ll find in this increasingly equity-obsessed country. DEI quotas are antithetical to athletic competition not only because they are openly discriminatory but also because they ensure equal outcomes rather than equal opportunities. Maybe the politicians who push them as part of stadium deals should extend the quotas onto the playing fields, too, so that each team has lots of members from disadvantaged tribes. At least then the public would have a chance to boo.
“Thus, they’re killing the golden goose.”
So far the goose is laying a lot of golden eggs and is creating it’s own little team future (owners) in investments and contractual futures in everyone else. During the 2022 season, which is the last full one, average revenue for the league’s 32 teams increased 8% while operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) fell 14%.
The Dallas Cowboys remain the most valuable team in the league at a record $9 billion, 13% more than a year ago. The Cowboys generate the most revenue ($1.1 billion) and operating income ($500 million) by far in the NFL.
There were also four teams that rose at least 20% in value during the past year—the Tennessee Titans (up 26%, to $4.4 billion), Las Vegas Raiders (now worth $6.2 billion, 22% more than a year ago), Miami Dolphins (up 24% in value, to $5.7 billion), and the Cleveland Browns, (up 20% to $4.62 billion). So it is continueing to be a group grope all over the country as these are the big winners only. Everyone is in the black.
And the waiting lists for season tickets is long and prosperous as the leagues, which are made up of the owners, change the games to fit the wishes of the fans (or what the fans can have).
One of the most lucritive is the TV contracts. I don’t watch TV sports much anymore as most can’t play the game but I pay for it with cable whether I do or not. And all those sponsors that make money off the people for commercials adjust their prices to cover that investment. Then it gets into the economy...oh, the possibilities are endless. Don’t look for sports to fold up anywhere soon. They’re feeding off too many teets of the public.
wy69
But if you ask the Millenials and Gen Z about the NFL, their support is lukewarm.
They'll watch the Super Bowl but that's about it.
The NFL needs them to pay tickets for crappy teams like the Bengals, the Cardinals, the Jaguars and expect them to pay $150 each for a seat right now.
It's tough to make that argument.
“It’s tough to make that argument.”
As long as the owners, who garnish a majority of the profits, are going to change the game to increase people watching it, and as long as the teams can provide it, get the sponsors trash out into the public eye and are willing to pay rediculous prices to get it, the “game” will go on. But it’s not the sport. It’s the business. And all sports are going to that to include the “so called” amatuer sports like the NCAA and the IOC. They like the money and don’t care about what product they get it with until the public dislikes something then they change it. No news is good news.
wy69
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