About amateur sports

So the city wants to build more amateur sport facilities as an economic development tool, with the idea being that they would attract a lot of people to come to town for meets. We’ve been down that path before with the U.S. National Whitewater Center. Funny how the city hasn’t mention that to date.

Gov. Pat McCrory: No state money for the Panthers

So reports the Charlotte Observer. And a quote:

“We don’t have the money in the state to address that issue,” McCrory told the Observer Monday. “I have never been actually asked for the $62 million, nor do we have it.”

Good.

And more signs that the City of Charlotte is utterly clueless at negotiating with anyone, be it the Panthers or the state.

McCrory said the addition of amateur sports to the city’s original proposal, an effort backed by the tourism industry, isn’t helping matters.

“There are a lot of other issues interfering with the initial goal of the Panthers, including amateur sports issues, which is confusing a lot of folks in the legislature right now,” McCrory said.

Meanwhile in Atlanta…

Atlanta is building currently building a streetcar line. How’s that going? No so well at the moment, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

H/t: JAT

Charlotte not getting its way in Raleigh

The General Assembly isn’t exactly embracing the city’s plan of raising the prepared food tax by a percent for 30 years to fund $125 million worth of improvements to Bank of America Stadium. Should this come as a surprise? Absolutely not, though Mayor Anthony Foxx, members of Charlotte City Council not named Warren Cooksey, and part of the Uptown crowd are likely in deep shock that such a thing could happen.

For their benefit, let’s go over why state legislators might not be in love with the city’s proposals. The General Assembly is dominated by Republicans, who don’t like to raise taxes. They might give a locality the option of doing so and may even require a referendum, but only if it can make a strong argument as to why it needs the extra money. Charlotte City Council has utterly failed to do so — Charlotte wants a tax increase that generates a lot more money than is needed to pay for the portion of Bank of America Stadium upgrades the city has agreed to cover while not really indicating what the city will do with the extra money beside some very vague talk about amateur athletics and maybe meeting the next set of Panthers’ stadium demands 15 years down the road.

State legislators don’t find this anywhere near a good enough argument to justify the proposed tax increase. And that extends to Democrats from Mecklenburg County, which gives you some idea how utterly and completely the city has failed to set forth a compelling argument. They do seem willing, however, to let the city pay for stadium upgrades from existing occupancy and prepared food taxes.

This in turn upsets city officials:

Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble, a lead negotiator in the stadium talks, said current taxes wouldn’t generate enough money for the Panthers, amateur sports and the convention center.

“It would not be fiscally prudent nor maybe possible to fund all three needs out of existing revenue sources,” Kimble said. “But we will continue to work with our legislators. … We are appreciative of them at least trying to find ways to keep the Panthers in Charlotte and in North Carolina.”

Interesting choice of words by Kimble, how the Panthers, amateur sports and a refit for the convention center are all “needs”, not wants. And that’s especially true as the amateur sports and convention center “needs” to date have no dollar figure associated with them. Or at least no dollar figure that Kimble and friends feel they need to share with the public.

And without details like cost, its very difficult for legislators to take the city claiming it’s broke and thus needs — there’s that word again — more tax revenue seriously.

Bonus observation #1: The Charlotte Observer had a good editorial out Sunday on this topic.

Bonus observation #2: Amateur sports is the economic development fad of the moment. Give it five years, and the entire country will be awash with underutilized facilities and people will be wondering “what were we thinking when we built all these?”

Smile, you’re on cop camera

In Greensboro. Within a couple years, the technology will make its way to Charlotte too.

Flashing red light: American Airlines applies for more Sao Paulo rights

To start daily nonstops from Los Angeles (this fall) and Chicago (fall 2014).

It’s hard to imagine a route announcement that more calls into question the conventional wisdom in this town than that the proposed US Airways/American Airlines merger will bring about an increase in international flights from CLT. Forget growth, this calls into serious question whether Charlotte’s two routes to South America will still be around in two years.

US Airways currently has a daily flight from Charlotte to Rio de Janeiro and begins Sao Paulo service in June. Demand to Brazil is highly concentrated — about half the market is from Miami, Orlando, and New York City — and making these flights work depends heavily upon connecting traffic. In other words, it’s a bit of a challenge in the best of times.

American Airlines is the dominate airline to South America in general and Brazil in particular, with existing flights to both Rio and Sao Paulo from Miami, Dallas, and New York City. Post merger, Charlotte is going to drop to at best the fourth priority for Brazil flights. Miami is the obvious issue that will get most of the attention, but those New York City and Dallas flights will have a significant impact too, as they cut the amount of feed into Charlotte’s Brazil flights.

But when you add Chicago to the mix, it takes it to a whole new level of difficulty. And that’s especially true as United already has a daily Chicago-Sao Paulo flight, which heightens Americans need to draw people from the Midwest to help fill its flight. That really doesn’t leave much of the country from which a Charlotte-Sao Paulo flight can draw.

The only reason that you make these route applications now is if it doesn’t matter how well the Charlotte-Sao Paulo flight does, that you’re going to keep it regardless or can it regardless. And it certainly implies LAX>CLT and ORD>CLT to Brazil for American.

Bonus concern: UA>AA in Chicago and the Midwest in general. To the degree that this signals that the combined American/US Airways intends to do something about that, be worried. The major markets in Ohio and Kentucky are closer to Chicago than Charlotte yet US Airways currently offers more seats to Charlotte than American does to Chicago. And that’s not true overall, it’s true for every market that both airlines serve in Kentucky and Ohio. If Chicago becomes a battleground as this application suggests, then it’s very easy to imagine a significant amount of capacity shifting from Charlotte to Chicago.

Meanwhile in Wilmington…

A state lawmaker is trying to establish a “film caucus” to argue for continued state incentives for film productions in the state. And he’s inviting legislators from all 30 counties in the state where filming has taken place in recent years to join in.

As my JLF colleague Jon Sanders wrote back in July:

The problem with these incentives is that the lower tax burden on film productions comes with the consequence of keeping tax burdens high on nonfavored businesses and industries. When government chooses one industry or business for special deals and breaks, there’s a good chance that cronyism is at work.

Bonus observation: The lawmaker organizing the caucus, Rep. Ted Davis, is a Republican, proving yet again that all politics is local.

More incentive silliness

The most pointless use of incentives remains to attract retail stores and shopping centers. Retail follows income and population. This basic truth seems lost upon the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, as they just voted to give $5.1 million in property tax rebates for an outlet mall. Just sad.

NASCAR investigates NASCAR

Over track safety, which is unlikely to truly fix the problem. Those sorts of studies never do. And that’s especially true when the issue is so fundamental as two of NASCAR’s most famous tracks (Daytona and Talladega) are simply too fast, thus creating the need for restrictor plates. Restrictor plate racing produces pack racing, which greatly increases the chances of “the big one” — accidents involving multiple cars, which in turn increases the chances of spectators getting injured. The solution? Reducing the extreme banking at Daytona and Talladega would go a long way towards eliminating the need for restrictor plates. Odds that happens? Slim to none.

Secret arrests in Adkins’ case ?!?

Capt. Chuck Adkins is before Civil Service Board hearing about his decision not to report a 19-year old prostitute who had been kidnapped and beaten by her pimp. Adkins was off duty when the woman spotted him and instead encouraged her to report what had happen and let her use his cellphone. That’s not the weird part though. As the Charlotte Observer reports:

The case is now part of a federal investigation. Details remain sketchy, but officers testified the Department of Homeland Security has interviewed the woman.

They did not say who the federal probe was targeting or what allegations the Department of Homeland Security were investigating.

Two men have been charged with kidnapping the woman who came to Adkins’ home. Authorities did not divulge their names, ages or other identifying information.

We have secret arrests now in the United States? What’s next, secret trials?