The NFL Cardinals "scored in the waning hours" of the
AZ legislative session yesterday, as the House of
Representatives approved a stadium-financing plan that had
been voted down earlier in the day, according to Baker &
Borden of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC, who write that the team's
backers "sent an all-out blitz" to secure the required 31
votes to pass Senate Bill 1220. The plan that will now go
before Maricopa County voters calls for a $331M stadium for
the Cardinals to be funded mostly through a 1% hotel bed
surcharge and a 3.25% rental car tax throughout the county.
Additionally, money generated at the new 73,000-seat
facility, including state income taxes from NFL events and
sales and construction taxes, "would flow to the project."
The team "must contribute" $85M to the project, excluding
costs for land acquisition, parking and other
infrastructure. The Fiesta Bowl will also put up $10M.
Once the stadium is built, the team will "retain" all NFL
revenues as well as proceeds from a naming rights deal,
while the public authority that will own the facility will
pay maintenance and operation costs. Gov. Jane Hull "is
expected to sign" the bill and put it on the November 7
ballot (AZ REPUBLIC, 4/19). Also in Phoenix, Mike McCloy
writes that local cities "are not exactly climbing over each
other" to land the facility because the planned referendum
"does not include the estimated" $75M cost of land, sewers
and parking. McCloy: "Any city that wants to be the new
home of the Cardinals will have to tap its taxpayers and
float bonds for the infrastructure" (AZ REPUBLIC, 4/19).
