Case Study Pittsburgh and Philadelphia

Case Study Pittsburgh and Philadelphia

Kenneth Avent

SPM 408

James B Kaden

Pittsburgh

There seems to be a common theme for building professional sports stadiums with public funds and the city of Pittsburgh was no different.  There are two teams in the city of Pittsburgh that were looking for stadium makeovers and they were the Steelers and the Pirates.  The first method to get public funds for the makeovers was to propose a referendum that would raise sales tax in the region.  This tax hike was known as the Regional Renaissance Initiative (RRI).  The public face of the RRI was known as the (RRP) Regional Renaissance Partnership.  According to the RRP, the RRI was going to fund several economic growth projects for the metropolitan area, which would include two new ballparks.  Many didn’t view this as an economic growth project but more as a stadium tax.  One of the main driving forces behind this tax proposal were the two teams housed in the area, the Steelers and the Pirates. Both teams began threatening to leave the city for financial reasons because they wanted new state of the art stadiums.  This initiative was know as plan A.  A majority of taxpayers in the region did not agree with the teams or the referendum that was trying to be passed. People in the area were not too keen on the idea of increasing taxes to accommodate the needs of the professional teams.  For these reasons the plan was not successful. Luckily they had a Plan B, which did need the support of the public.  

The city of Pittsburgh has a very strong corporate community.  Many large businesses headquarters were stationed right in the Pittsburgh area.  There is a group called the Allegheny Conference. The majority of members in this group are CEO’s of various companies. This group is very powerful and they try to influence public policy in a way that will benefit corporate investments.  The groups began to shift the message of the plan in order to accommodate the reservations of those within the community. Through the tireless work of Steve Leeper the plan was a success and both teams received new stadiums; PNS Park for the Pirates and Heinz field for the Steelers. With the completion of these parks, some complaints have been raised about the time games are held, so that the surrounding businesses could cash in on dining business. Even with the rebuild, the revenues that were predicted when the plan was sold to the community have fallen short of what was desired. The impact this will have on the community is unknown at this time.  

Philadelphia

Philadelphia had the opportunity to experience a success and a defeat. Philadelphia’s new stadiums were financed using public dollars, but the stadiums would not be housed in center city, even though this was the location people wanted for at least one of them. Funding for these projects was two fold, as the state had to approve funding, and so did the city. Two years elapsed before both groups agreed to the deal. With the city and state contributing, both teams had to agree to share in the cost of the stadiums.