The 2 key questions Charlotte must answer about soccer deal

Two questions should drive local elected leaders as they consider a proposal to help billionaire Bruton Smith land a Major League Soccer team in Charlotte:

1. What’s the very least amount of taxpayer dollars we can commit and still make this deal happen?

2. Is that amount, in the end, the best use of that money?

Money is frequently tight at budget time, with the city and county struggling to fully fund police, schools, parks, libraries and other basic functions.

But when Smith and his team came calling for help with his bid for an MLS franchise, the vault door swung wide. The city and county instantly crafted a plan that would put taxpayers on the hook for $87.5 million, plus $13 million of land, plus financing $75 million for one of the Carolinas’ richest people – with almost no public input and limited review by elected officials.

Actually, the original proposal was for taxpayers to pay $100 million, not $87.5 million. After objections, organizers quickly cut the public contribution, suggesting that minimizing it perhaps wasn’t their initial focus.

A Major League Soccer team would be a nice addition to Charlotte’s landscape. Local leaders should work to make it happen with a deal that would make sense for both taxpayers and Smith’s investment group. The one on the table isn’t it.

Mecklenburg commissioners will hold a public meeting at 3 p.m. Tuesday on a proposal that is more generous to Smith than it needs to be. Commissioners and council members are being pressured by a Jan. 31 deadline for cities to apply for MLS expansion. No shrewd business person would invest so much, so quickly, with so little due diligence.

Charlotte should look to other cities that have won MLS franchises to gauge what might be appropriate. In St. Paul, the city will pay for $18.4 million in infrastructure improvements while the team will pay the full $150 million stadium cost. Sacramento, competing with Charlotte for a team, will spend $46 million on infrastructure while the team pays $180 million for the stadium. A group hoping to land a franchise in Miami will pay the full cost of a stadium there. St. Louis, also vying for a franchise, is struggling to even let voters have a say on a $60 million investment. A combined total investment of $30 million or less for infrastructure would make Charlotte competitive – without putting so much risk on the public.

Backers – including Center City Partners CEO Michael Smith and County Manager Dena Diorio – believe a new stadium just southeast of uptown in Elizabeth would spark $700 million or so in economic development. We are skeptical. Much of that development would come anyway. And economists overwhelmingly agree that pro sports franchises don’t generate much if any new revenue for cities.

Michael Smith said this proposal is one opportunity, through minority contracting and other efforts, to address the divides exposed by Charlotte’s unrest last September. To us, that episode demanded this community do a lot of things for neglected residents. Building a soccer stadium for Bruton Smith isn’t one of them.

This story was originally published January 23, 2017 at 6:32 PM with the headline "The 2 key questions Charlotte must answer about soccer deal."