Murfreesboro City Council to weigh cost to taxpayers on proposed minor league park

Murfreesboro taxpayer dollars could play a role with a proposed $30 million to $40 million minor league baseball park.

The hopeful baseball team owner Jason Rose of Arizona expects to split costs 50/50 with the city to pursue an economic impact analysis, environmental study, and architecture and engineering designs to build a 4,500-seat stadium on 4.5 acres next to Cannonsburgh Village. The baseball park would blend well with the city's historic parks and recreation village in downtown Murfreesboro, Rose said.

"We’re prepared to move forward with the shared costs," said Rose, whose baseball park proposal does face opposition from economist Daniel Smith.

"Subsidies to sports teams simply do not pay off for local communities, and instead these stadiums are a net economic burden," said Smith, director of the Political Economy Research Institute at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

Other cities have committed tax dollars for minor league stadiums. Jackson, Tennessee, spent $13.4 million over a 10-year period to keep a baseball team through a renewed lease agreement that started June 2011, the Jackson Sun reported. The Jackson government asked the team known as the Generals to vacate the stadium lease in 2021 for failing to remain affiliated with a Major League Baseball franchise. Jackson then reached a stadium arrangement with the Rockabillys minor league team.

Smith foresees Murfreesboro experiencing similar cost issues.

"The peer-reviewed evidence on subsidies for sports stadiums robustly finds that these proposals systematically tend to understate the costs and widely exaggerate the benefits to local communities," said Smith, who's also a professor of economics at MTSU's Jones College of Business. "The gains to certain businesses and areas of a community tend to be offset by reduced spending elsewhere."

Rose disagrees with Smith's view that cities should not invest in sports stadiums.

"That’s just a philosophically dogmatic and short-sighted opinion," said Rose, who formed Invest Murfreesboro LLC to pursue the minor league team and baseball park in Murfreesboro.

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"We’re talking about minor league baseball here that is affordable by any definition and serves the purpose of giving families another opportunity to enjoy the community," Rose said. "'It keeps more dollars home rather than other communities for the same type of activity."

Suburban Murfreesboro and Rutherford County residents wanting to see minor league baseball have the option to attend Nashville Sounds games.

Arizona cities are benefiting from investing in stadiums that serve 15 Major League Baseball teams during Spring Training and "year-round activities for festivals and youth tournaments," said Rose, who's the owner of both the Rose + Allyn public and online relations firm in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Bentley Scottsdale Polo Champions.

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Proposed team owner Jason Rose: 'The Bottoms needs a catalyst'

Rose contends the proposed minor league park will attract more people to the city's downtown restaurants and other businesses.

The stadium can also stimulate economic development to revitalize the city's Historic Bottoms area that includes Cannonsburgh Village, said Rose, whose other businesses includes theatrical musicals.

"The Bottoms needs a catalysts," said Rose, who foresees the baseball park enticing private development to the area.

A city consultant study completed by Ragan Smith and approved by the Murfreesboro Planning Commission in 2017 defined the Historic Bottoms area as being along a mile stretch of Broad Street from Old Fort Parkway to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The 55-acre Bottoms attained its name because of its low-lying terrain that was consistently flooded by rising water from Lytle Creek. The Bottoms provided many formerly enslaved residents with shelter housing in an area that developed with low-income neighborhoods and light industrial and warehouse operations.

The National Housing Act of 1949 led to the Bottoms neighborhoods getting demolished to build U.S. Highway 41, which is known in Murfreesboro as Broad Street, according to the study.

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Main Street leader: Downtown businesses want more connection to Cannonsburgh Village

More economic development and tourism are goals of Main Street Murfreesboro, an organization led by executive director Sarah Callender that promotes the downtown area and its businesses.

"Without knowing more details of the proposed baseball park, it is hard to comment on an economic impact for the historic downtown," Callender said. "However Main Street Murfreesboro is in support of any successful program or development that increases walking traffic around the downtown area for our businesses."

The baseball park proponents foresee fans parking in the downtown area before walking to see games by Cannonsburgh Village, and supporting local businesses before and after games, Rose said.

The ball park proposal may help Main Street Murfreesboro pursue goals.

"Connecting the Cannonsburgh area across Broad Street to the historic downtown business district in order to establish more walking and entertainment spaces for tourism and our community members to enjoy the beautiful outdoors, greenway system, and shopping and eating is a win-win for local downtown businesses," Callender said.

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Baseball league touts affordable entertainment for families

City officials are already pursuing what they hope will serve as catalyst for the Historic Bottoms through an up to $26 million tax abatement incentive with payments spread over 20 years for the Keystone mixed residential and commercial development plan. The Keystone project plan will surround Murfreesboro City Hall and Linebaugh Library with four buildings that include two for 239 apartments, one for 80 to 100 condos and a boutique hotel with 80 to 150 rooms.

Keystone developers plan bottom floor retail spaces of 30,000 to 40,000 square feet and 780 parking spaces, including 715 in two garages.

Rose expects the city's already existing parking spaces to be enough for fans going to games to see a new franchise team with the American Association of Professional Baseball.

League Commissioner Josh Schaub told the city council in September that the average game attendance is 2,668 fans watching 51 regular season home games for 12 existing teams.

The league seeks to start new rival teams in Murfreesboro and Clarksville, Tennessee, by spring 2026, Schaub told the city officials. He suggested the league would be interested in a 20-year lease with a 10-year extension option.

The average league ticket price for 12 current teams is $12. The average cost for a family of four to attend a game and purchase for each family member a ticket, hotdog and cola is $68, which is less than the $225 average for a major league game, Schaub said.

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Murfreesboro leaders await economic impact analysis

Rose and Schaub hope to convince the elected seven-member Murfreesboro City Council led by Mayor Shane McFarland to back the proposed minor league baseball park.

"If the developer is looking for the city to pay for all of the baseball stadium, we have a lot of other priorities right now we have to consider," McFarland said. "We've not seen the financing plan."

Those priorities include the city responding to growth by funding 20 more recreational baseball/softball fields, road projects and competitive pay to hire and retain police officers, teachers and other public service positions, Councilman Austin Maxwell said.

Maxwell said he doesn't see how using taxpayer funds on a stadium "creates a better quality of life for all the citizens."

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City could establish sports authority to fund baseball stadium

Although leery of committing tax dollars on a stadium, Maxwell said he agrees with fellow Councilman Shawn Wright about the city possibly establishing a sports authority to be on the hook to fund a stadium rather than the Murfreesboro government.

"I'm open to hear the conversation on how that would be set up, but I would not be open to taxpayers paying for it," Maxwell said.

A sports authority also will need approval from the Tennessee General Assembly to work with the baseball team on funding a stadium that will take 18 months to build by the spring 2026 season, Rose said.

"We don't want to waste time," Rose said.

A sports authority, however, will still involve tax dollars, said Smith, the MTSU economist.

"The burden of these obligations would still fall to taxpayers," Smith said.

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MTSU economist doubts city will gain baseball revenues

City leaders should keep in mind that baseball fan spending may not generate net revenues made by any claims of an economic impact analysis that Smith said would be a "waste of money."

"Any tax revenues from the stadium and any surrounding stadium district that would be dedicated to paying off this debt would be offset by tax revenue lost elsewhere," said Smith, who's written opinion editorials presented in The Tennessean in opposition to the Tennessee Titans future football stadium.

"Since consumers’ entertainment budgets are fixed, people spending money to go to a minor league baseball game will cut recreational spending elsewhere, such as bowling alleys or movie theaters. So while new tax revenue will be generated in the stadium district, it would be offset by reduced tax collections elsewhere across the city."

Smith said he's willing to review any economic impact analysis on the proposed minor league baseball park and share his findings for free for the city.

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Smith has been a past critic of the Murfreesboro City Council's 2019 decision to pursue what was initially estimated to cost $14.5 million on a Siegel Soccer Park improvement to attract a 20-year lease with the Tennessee State Soccer Association office and tournaments.

The annual debt service payments from tax dollars is estimated to be $75,000 per $1 million of borrowed money, Rutherford County officials report. Paying back $14.5 million in borrowed money would mean nearly $1.1 million in taxes needed to cover debt service payments.

The city so far has spent $12.5 million on improvements to the northside soccer park in 2022 and 2023, Murfreesboro government spokesman Mike Browning said.

The council approved the soccer park improvement plan a couple months before raising property taxes in 2019 for the first time in 20 years with a 35.8% hike to keep up with the rising costs to provide government and education services.

Smith and Beacon Center of Tennessee responded to the $14.5 million soccer park plan by calling the project the state's "Pork of the Year" winner for 2019. Smith serves as a senior fellow with the Beacon Center, which is considered a conservative and libertarian policy research organization that promotes free market solutions.

"I think projects like the soccer complex (were) an irresponsible use of taxpayer money," Smith said in 2019. "They over-inflated the benefits — which are primarily going to go to people who use the soccer complex — and understated the costs, which are borne by the general taxpayers, many of whom will not use the soccer complex or benefit from it in any way."

The Murfreesboro government in the previous fiscal year that ended June 30 reported Siegel Soccer Park revenues of $414,000 while expenses, exclusive of pay and benefits of workers, was $288,000, city spokesman Mike Browning said.

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Another MTSU economist questions study used to promote soccer park project

The soccer association promised the city would collect tax revenues from tournament visitors through 20,000 hotel room night bookings annually.

A one page form touted as an economic study completed by the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce staff suggested that the city would actually see double what the state association promised and have 40,000 hotel room night booking per year, based on assumption that people would decide to stay an extra day in Murfreesboro area. This assumption meant direct revenues of $1.1 million annually split between the county and city.

The one-page form made another assumption that suggested the soccer park would generate $5.7 million in indirect annual revenues based on spent tourism dollars remaining in the local economy.

MTSU economist Murat Arik found the chamber's assumption on indirect spending too generous for the city's soccer park deal. Arik during a 2019 interview with The Daily News Journal described the chamber's assumption that indirect revenues would be more than five times greater than direct revenues of $1.1 million "troubling."

"That never happens in visitor spending," Arik said. "That's too much."

Arik, director of MTSU's Business and Economic Research Center, completed the first economic survey of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in 2005 in Manchester with the help of students to survey and determine how the visitors were spending their money.

"Business revenue multipliers are about 1.34 for that event," Arik said.

Although he questioned the tourism revenue assumptions, Arik did view the soccer park deal as a sports branding opportunity that promotes the city and county.

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Can baseball park 'make economic sense for all the parties'?

Rose said the economic impact analysis for the proposed minor league baseball park could examine factors that include whether a local hotel or brewery are involved.

Rose said the pending study will determine if "this stadium can be done for an amount of money that is responsible and rewarding for Murfreesboro and our prospective franchise."

He estimated the stadium cost to be $30 million to $40 million during a September interview with The Daily News Journal prior to speaking before the City Council.

"The next step is (determining) whether this thing can make economic sense for all the parties," Rose said. "If those costs climb too high, it may not be the right time to pursue this in Murfreesboro."

Rose remains hopeful a ball park is possible by the city's historic Cannonsburgh Village.

"Both the city and our prospective ownership group are closely examining whether the finances, stadium costs and other variables can equate to a win win," Rose said.

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Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. Follow his tweets on the X social media platform @ScottBroden. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.

Facts about proposed minor league baseball park

• Where would proposed stadium be built: by Murfreesboro's Cannonsburgh Village, a historic parks and recreation property on Front Street off Broad Street in downtown area

• Acres needed for stadium: 4.5

• Expected number of seats: 4,500

• Estimated cost to build stadium: $30 million to $40 million

• Minor league affiliation for proposed franchise: American Association of Professional Baseball

• Number of teams in league at this time: 12

• Number of home games for each team: 51

• Average attendance for league games: 2,668

• Average ticket price for league games: $12

• Average cost for family of four with the purchase for each family member a ticket, hotdog and cola: $68

• Average cost for family of four to attend Major League Baseball game with similar purchases: $225

Sources: Proposed franchise owner Jason Rose and American Association of Professional Baseball Commissioner Josh Schaub

City touts $12.5M for Siegel Soccer Park improvements

• constructing a 110,000-square-foot building for indoor soccer training, offices and classrooms for the state association;

• installing synthetic turf to eight fields to make them more usable after wet weather;

• adding lighting to another six fields;

• and building an additional restroom pavilion.

• Note: The 137-acre Siegel Soccer Park offers 21 soccer fields for local, state and national events. Other planned improvements include a renovation of the championship plaza, installation of shade structure additions and signage replacement.

Source: Murfreesboro city spokesman Mike Browning

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Minor League Baseball: Murfreesboro considers overall cost for park