Remember all the screaming by a certain de-bunker about Stadiums being boon doggles for the rich?
http://www.dallasnews.com/metro/stories/STORY.ea3883b499.b0.af.0.a4.22ef9.html

Hot time planned for paid-off notes

Arlington to celebrate paying off ballpark bonds 10 years early

11/17/2001

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

ARLINGTON – Paying off a mortgage usually gives cause for a party. But a note-burning party?

That may indeed be unusual, but then, most mortgages aren't for $135 million. And fewer still get paid off 10 years early.

With that in mind, Arlington officials are inviting the public to a festive bond-burning celebration Wednesday to mark the retirement of the debt incurred when the city built The Ballpark in Arlington.

The debt, financed by a half-cent sales tax increase and annual rent payments of about $3.5 million by the Texas Rangers, is expected to be paid off in full by Nov. 20, officials said.

"The key thing about the ballpark debt is that it has been retired significantly ahead of schedule," City Manager Chuck Kiefer said.

Once the debt is paid off, the city will notify the Texas Comptroller's Office to stop collecting the additional half-cent in sales and use tax, city officials said.

A statement from the comptroller's office said it expects the sales tax rate to return to 7.25 percent, from its current 7.75 percent, by Dec. 1.

State law sets the maximum sales tax rate at 8.25 percent.

Voters approved the $135 million bond package Jan. 19, 1991.

The reasons for the early retirement can be found mostly in the roaring economy of the mid- and late 1990s. In some years, Mr. Kiefer said, tax collections were dramatically higher than the debt-payment plan had forecast.

Other factors included conservative revenue estimates that were insisted upon by the city at the time of the ballpark deal, Mr. Kiefer said.

Moreover, he said, when the ballpark was being built – it opened in 1994 – the record economic expansion after the 1991 recession had not fully caught on yet. As a result, it was a buyer's market in the construction industry.

"You couldn't build one like that for what we spent, today," Mr. Kiefer said. Total costs for the 49,000-seat ballpark were about $190 million.

City council member Sheri Capehart said that while there remain philosophical issues about whether public money should be used for sports facilities, she is glad the ballpark was built.

"I asked for the report just so I could find out what this means for the city," she said of the debt retirement. "We all inherited this deal. But, am I happy the ballpark is in Arlington? Absolutely. I would not want it anyplace else. It is a community amenity."

The bond-burning ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the ballpark. Mr. Greene, Mayor Elzie Odom, and Mike Cramer, chief operating officer of the Rangers' parent company, will be in attendance.

This story also appears in the Arlington Morning News.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

Answers

JUST SO IT SINKS IN:

TEN......COUNT EM.......TEN YEARS **EARLY** AND ITS A MAJOR TAX PAYER FROM NOW ON.

Arlington to celebrate paying off ballpark bonds 10 years early

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

Now what they need is a professional team to use it. ;o)

What has happened to the teams in Texas. Spurs seem to be all that is left.

Best Wishes,,,,

Z

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

Damn crreep you must be bored. Here is hoping you had to help pay for it. Ha ha.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001