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February 3, 2010
Goooaaalll! K.C. Wizards Score a Home
The Wall Street Journal
by Maura Webber Sadovi
Kansas City, Kansas, managed to green-light a soccer stadium project without public approval, by repurposing an existing bond issue that was ahead of schedule due to higher-than-projected sales tax revenues.
Even as a stadium building boom is tapering off, some local governments are using creative financing to stay in the game. Among the most recent to write a big check: Kansas City, Kan.
About $147 million in bonds backed by the state of Kansas and local sales-tax revenue were recently approved by the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan. The bonds will pay for much of the $165 million, 18,000-seat professional soccer stadium in which Major League Soccer's Kansas City Wizards are expected to play their 2012 season.
...The bond approval was seen by many as a major break for the stadium and for the Wizards, who currently play in a Kansas City baseball stadium.
To be sure, it isn't the only stadium to move forward during the downturn. A regular-season baseball stadium for the Florida Marlins that is expected to cost more than $500 million was approved last year by the Miami-Dade County commissioners. And in December, developer Forest City Ratner Cos. sold $511 million in tax-free bonds to finance a $900 million sports arena in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Still, the total value of open-air stadium projects started last year in the U.S. fell to about $1.3 billion from about $3.4 billion near the peak in 2007, according to McGraw-Hill Construction.
Posted by eric at February 3, 2010 12:15 PM