Altoona Curve fans driven batty last year by fair-weather ''rainouts'' because of drainage problems at Blair County Ballpark should have a sunny outlook as spring training begins because the state recently served up a $1.3 million grant for a new field.
Critics have slammed that use of taxpayer money for the benefit of private enterprise, especially with the national economy in a slump and the state playing budget catch-up.
''There is no respect for the taxpayers' money at any time, but it's even more glaring in the face of deficit spending,'' wrote Michael Boston in a Mirror letter to the editor last fall. ''No sports franchise should get public money for any reason ...''
Nate Benefield of the Commonwealth Foundation calls it ''corporate welfare,'' while Eric Epstein of RockTheCapital.org asks rhetorically, ''maybe they [state officials] can spare some change to fix the bridges, pave the roads and cover the potholes.''
Even the lawmakers who pitched the project to the governor, the county commissioners who helped set up a pathway for the money and loyal Curve fans have misgivings about it.
''In an ideal world, given the amount of money professional sports generates, [teams] could afford to provide their own facilities,'' said State Sen. John Eichelberger Jr., R-Blair, who worked with State Rep. Rick Geist, R-Altoona, to persuade Gov. Ed Rendell to release the grant.
The Pennsylvania Constitution doesn't list funding ballparks as a government function, added Commissioner Donna Gority.
The money ''probably could be used for other things,'' said season ticket holder Eileen Snyder.
Commissioner Terry Tomassetti's traditional, conservative political values made him skeptical about the wisdom of the grant, but the reality is, the Curve are Blair County's most important attraction, he said.
"There is philosophy, and there is reality,'' he said.
Lots of places have good schools and a good labor force, but the Curve are critical in helping ''differentiate'' us from them, he said.
Because the Curve are one of the keys to attracting business development, and because a decent field is critical to the Curve continuing to play here, the grant represents ''food on the plate'' and ''economic security,'' both more important than his political philosophy, Tomassetti said.
Some might say it's pork barrel politics, but ''as long as [state] lawmakers appropriate money like this, Blair County should try to get [its] fair share,'' Gority said.
How it got here
The money came through the state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.
''We all have to play in the same game,'' Geist said, explaining that his district's interest comes before his own conservative leanings.
The county couldn't afford to pay for a new field, and, without one, the team might have left at the end of its 10-year lease this spring.
''That's what they were telling us they were going to do if we didn't take care of this,'' Tomassetti said.
Then-Curve principal owner Chuck Greenberg thinks the county was responsible for the field replacement, just as a landlord would be to fix a leaky roof for his tenant.
"The tenant doesn't pay," he said. "Especially when there's a lease."
County solicitor Nathan Karn disagrees. He says the team was responsible, and that if it had left after the lease period with the field unfixed, it would have opened itself to a breach-of-contract lawsuit.
That point is debatable, said Ralph Albarano, a principal of Lakemont Partnership, which leases the entire Lakemont Park complex, including the stadium, from the county - which ultimately owns the ground and buildings.
In a convoluted arrangement that allowed the county to receive $10.8 million from the state to build the stadium in 1997, Albarano's group leases the ballpark back to the county, which in turn leases it to the ball club.
The lease states that the ball club ''will maintain the stadium facility in good order and repair, subject to normal wear and tear.''
Last year, the field was 10 years old, three years past what Greenberg said was a normal life span.
So, was the replacement project the equivalent of normal maintenance?
''It's obviously a very gray area,'' Albarano said. ''It was smart on everybody's behalf to take advantage of the money.''
The state couldn't use that grant money anyway to help cover its big general-fund deficit, Eichelberger and Geist said.
RACP funds come mainly from borrowing through bonds, Eichelberger said, adding that bond guidelines don't permit the funds to go for operations or even capital projects whose life span is longer than the term of the loans.
The state borrowed the money used in the grant about 14 months ago, before the economic downturn, Geist said.
If the county hadn't gotten the grant, it might have had to borrow the money, said Marty Marasco, executive director of the Altoona Blair County Development Corporation.
Or the team might have had to raise ticket and concession prices beyond what many local people could afford, Albarano said.
An investment
in the area
Geist doesn't recall any negative phone calls to his office about the grant.
He does, however, recall people a decade ago complaining about the initial $10.8 million grant for construction - people who later came to the stadium and loved it, he said.
''It's our county's biggest block party,'' Geist said. ''Unbelievably special.''
It creates a sense of pride and generates lots of revenue for the region, Gority added.
While the economic meltdown gives grant critics leverage, it also gives grant advocates similar leverage: It's a ''shovel-ready'' project that's probably not much different than many others in the recently passed national stimulus bill, said Benefield, who's no fan of the grant.
It's hard to say generally whether public financing of stadiums is warranted, according to Mark Rosentraub, a professor at Cleveland State University. One can argue that if a team is doing well, it ought to pay a ''user fee,'' he said.
Conversely, he said, if a facility anchors a major redevelopment strategy and there are private sector commitments, an investment of public dollars may be justified.
The ultimate criterion is ''does it pay'' for the public sector to invest, Rosentraub said.
''[The figure] $1.3 million is not a lot of money in the scheme of things,'' said Charlie Johnson, a sports development consultant from Chicago.
The public sector typically pays for capital projects, he said. And the state is the government of choice, especially in the Northeast, where states generate more applicable revenue than municipalities, he said.
Ballparks and
state money
Blair County is one of many counties that received state funding for minor league facilities through RACP.
Since 1988, the program has allocated $93 million in 21 installments for construction or improvements for 14 minor league baseball stadiums, according to a list supplied by Susan Hooper, spokeswoman for the state Office of the Budget.
Government funding of sports stadiums is common nationally, said Casey Wells, executive director of the Convention Center Authority in Erie County, which received $8.9 million from RACP in 1993 to build Jerry Uht Park for the Erie Seawolves.
The stadium sits amid a cluster of downtown attractions, including a civic center, and draws about 250,000 people a year, helping to generate private initiatives like restaurants, taverns and stores, and helping to make downtown ''unique, different and exciting,'' Wells said.
''People want to be where something is going on,'' said Mike Haggerty, owner since 1973 of Plymouth Tavern near the Erie ballpark.
The construction of the ballpark ''seemed to be the tipping point'' for a shift in that area from demolition to growth, he said.
Similarly, the presence of Blair County Ballpark here has been ''very positive,'' said Greg Sheehan, owner of the franchise for the Holiday Inn Express on Plank Road.
The ballpark generates customers for the motel - both fans and people doing business with the Curve, he said.
By contrast, Albarano said the Curve haven't benefited his amusement park, despite its adjacent location and his optimism at the start.
The park and team vie for customers ''that only have so much expendable income,'' Albarano said.
But the team has been a boon overall to the area, he said.
Still, most researchers - ''unless funded by an organization that specifically benefits from new construction'' - have found that ballparks tend to produce limited economic benefit, wrote Bob Trumpbour, Penn State Altoona professor and author of ''The New Cathedrals, Politics and Media in the History of Stadium Construction,'' in an e-mail.
Proponents of ballpark construction often claim a ''multiplier'' effect, by which money that the team spends cycles through to fund other purchases, which in turn fund others that support the local economy.
''Unfortunately, some pro-ballpark advocates have juiced up the ''multiplier effect'' to absurd levels,'' he wrote.
By contrast, scholars cite the ''substitution'' effect, ''based on the notion that the typical family has only so many dollars that can be allocated to entertainment expenses, and that if money is spent in a ballpark, it may not be spent somewhere else,'' Trumpbour wrote in the e-mail.
''Take away the team,'' said John Fizel, economics professor at Penn State Erie. ''What would you do instead?''
Other factors that limit economic benefit from stadiums: Commercial activity for a sporting event takes place during a ''compressed five to eight-hour period on a limited number of dates,'' and many athletes spend much of their salaries in a distant place they consider home, Trumpbour wrote in his book.
Local opinions
Season ticket holder Ed Leipold and most of his friends favored the grant, because of everything the team ''brings to the table,'' he said.
That includes the opportunity for nonprofit groups to earn money by working the concessions at the ballpark, said Rob Egan, the new general manager.
Leipold wondered why anyone would complain about the field-replacement grant when the federal government is giving away more than $700 billion.
''At least we can see where the money went [here],'' he said.
The larger community will get the money back, so he doesn't have a problem with the grant, said Roger Ebersole of Osterburg, called by the Mirror at random.
The state has gone this far, so it needs to continue, even if it's not the ideal time, said Lynne Edwards of Lakemont, also called at random. ''Too late to turn back,'' she said.
The grant probably shouldn't have happened, with the way the economy is, and so much else needing done, said Rae Ann Peters of Altoona, also called at random.
The local match
The governor OK'd the grant informally in October by authorizing an application, and the state approved the application from the Blair County Industrial Development Authority in late December, said Marasco.
The authority met its 50 percent local match by citing $1.3 million (of about $9 million) in federal funding allocated for the Park Avenue widening project, Marasco said. The money for the project can serve as the match because the avenue handles traffic for the park.
Greenberg does not concede he'd have taken the team elsewhere if the state hadn't paid for a new field.
''We never thought that way,'' he said. ''We just never crossed that bridge," adding he never explored the consequences of an expiring lease and a field that was no longer playable.
Arguing that the team deserved to benefit from the grant, he pointed out that it had invested about $4 million voluntarily for capital projects through the years, building a picnic area, a party deck, outfield bleachers, video board and a new scoreboard.
The field-replacement project turned out to be more extensive than it should have been, because the original drainage system included too little sand, pipes too close to the surface and other faults, Greenberg said.
Fields have a limited life span because they compact and sediment sifts through the grass roots to clog drainage outlets, he said.
The grant wasn't related to Greenberg's sale of the team in November to original owner Bob Lozinak, he said. Greenberg felt confident of the grant as early as the summer, months before the sale possibility arose, he said.
Still, the state's commitment to fix the field probably made the team more attractive to buy, said Marasco.
The grant question is prickly, and season-ticket holder Kassy Olewiler isn't sure the ballfield was the right use for it, especially in the current economic crisis.
"But I'm really glad they did it," she said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
