New Haven's professional sports fix

The Elm City spends heavily on its professional sports, but whether they're worth it is unclear.

By Michael Horn

New Haven. The city has a population of only 125,000, but it is the home of the Beast, a minor league hockey team, the Ravens, a minor league baseball team, the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament, and other sporting events, including the 1995 Special Olympics. New Haven and Connecticut have repeatedly shown that they believe this high concentration of sports is beneficial to the area. The mayor's spokesman, Michael Kuczkowski, said that one of the city's main objectives is to make New Haven into a cohesive community, and this happens at sporting events in general. Although officials would like this to happen in individual communities, public spaces, and throughout the city, according to Kuczkowski, sporting events provide a starting point on which to build.

But sporting events are an expensive starting point. In 1991, the state paid $21 million for a new stadium for the Pilot Pen Tournament. Connecticut, Yale, and the Ravens spent $3.2 million for renovations to bring the Ravens to the city in 1993, and the state gave $1 million more in 1995 for improvements to the baseball stadium. Additionally, the state recently paid for $9 million in renovations to the New Haven Coliseum to lure the Beast. This spate of spending for sports amidst New Haven's poverty begs the question: are professional sports worth it?

There is no absolute answer to this question. Sporting events affect New Haven in ways that cannot be measured in an economic study, including how sports can build a sense of community and how it can change outsiders' view of the city.

Making New Haven a center for tennis

New Haven was not considered a premiere tennis venue before the Volvo International Tennis Tournament (now called Pilot Pen International) arrived in the city in 1990. To bolster the new tournament, the state of Connecticut doled out $21 million for a new stadium, the Connecticut Tennis Center, located in the Yale tennis facilities.

The Pilot Pen consisted of only a men's tournament until this year, when a women's bracket was added. It is unlikely, however, that the men's tournament will be back next year. This comes as a result of a decision by ATP Tour schedulers, who are thinking of moving the tournament to a slot three weeks before the U.S. Open, as opposed to the current two weeks. This change would create a week of dead time between the men's and women's tournament, which would cost Pilot Pen an estimated $400,000. The tournament is already hurting financially, having lost $2 million in the last two years alone, and attendance for the men's tournament has been on a continual decline.

Kuczkowski, however, believes the tournament is valuable to the city. He claims that even though the stadium is essentially used only two weeks out of the year, those two weeks are probably worth $1 million to the city.

"There's a lot of activity going on which is very positive," Kuczkowski said. "People in New York who are gearing up for tennis because of the U.S. Open start following tennis and read positive stories about the Pilot Pen and about Pete Sampras getting upset. Their first reaction is to the news, and the second is that it's in New Haven, and that's positive since we're a small city." He said that New Haven is seeking to help the tournament with its financial difficulties so as to keep it alive.

But a recent study calls into doubt the wisdom of pumping money into the tournament. Arthur Johnson, Provost of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, and Allen Sack, a University of New Haven professor sharply criticized the practices of the Tennis Foundation of Connecticut (TFC), which leases the tennis center from Yale in the Nov. 1996 issue of Economic Development Quarterly.

According to the report, the TFC has consistently overestimated revenue and underestimated costs. Also, the center is not being used for concerts, as was originally planned, and the tournament has not brought businesses to the area as it was thought to do. The report stated, "In economic terms, the [Volvo Tournament] and the tennis stadium made some contribution to the local and state economies of Connecticut, butÉnot as large a contribution as originally projected." This prompted the report's authors, and others, to speculate that the money spent on the stadium may have been better spent elsewhere.

Nonetheless, Johnson and Sack recognized that there is more to a sporting event than money. They wrote that the tournament helps the city's external image, as the city heavily advertises Pilot Pen to tourists.

But its direct benefits to the city are limited. Johnson and Sack wrote that this is because New Haven is a poor area, and an elitist sport like tennis does not appeal to its citizens. Also, according to the report, "Because tennis is not a sport that pits one city or region against another, it does not generate the fan loyalty one associates with team sports."

Community building through baseball

The feelings of community with the presence of a team like the Ravens is more in line with what Johnson and Sack discussed. "When you go to a baseball game, this is the true area where the community gets together," Kuczkowski said.

The Class AA Ravens moved to New Haven and made Yale Field their home in 1994. They originally drew many fans and produced a winning team on the field. But in recent years, the team has faltered, and attendance has dropped significantly. It dipped below 200,000 in 1998, for the first time in the team's five-year history in New Haven.

But the Ravens are making changes. Already in this off-season they have switched affiliations from the Colorado Rockies to the Seattle Mariners. General Manager Chris Canetti believes this will increase fan support for two reasons. First, change alone excites activity, and second, the Mariners are a highly marketable team with stars such as Ken Griffey, Jr., who have risen from their farm system.

Minor league baseball was originally supposed to pump $14 million into the local economy each year, but no one interviewed could quantify what the actual contribution has been. "It's had a pretty significant economic impact, pretty substantial," Canetti said. "We've brought jobs to the area, we do business with a lot of local companies, and we purchase a lot of stuff and bring people in."

However, team representatives feel that Yale Field must be renovated if the Ravens are to appeal to fans and thereby increase attendance. The city has put in a request for a $2.5 million bond act from the state to be used to renovate the field. Renovations would include upgrading the front of the building, enlarging the merchandise store, modernizing the ticket windows, adding luxury suites, and possibly adding a picnic area. "We're trying to make the stadium more fan-friendly," Canetti said.

The Ravens, however, have had trouble getting money from the state. The Johnson and Sack report states that because the state gave $21 million toward construction of the Pilot Pen tennis center, it may be disposed to give less money to other New Haven projects.

Beast boosts Ninth Square

Another stadium making renovations in hopes of becoming more fan-friendly is the New Haven Veterans' Memorial Coliseum. These renovations were a significant contributing factor to the Beast's decision to play in the Coliseum in 1997, owner and general manager David Gregory said. The arena is currently undergoing further renovations at a total cost of $9 million.

In addition to drawing an average of 4,500 fans per game last season and sparking excitement by making the playoffs, the Beast has brought customers to Ninth Square businesses. Maureen Donaldson, owner of The Old New Haven Restaurant, said the Beast is a boost for the area. "We're totally appreciative. We'll get people [who are going to the game] before the game and afterwards."

'We have an interest in keeping sporting events'

In addition to its teams and the Pilot Pen, New Haven hosted last year's AA All-Star game and the 1995 Special Olympics. "One of the positive aspects [of having professional sports] is that we're getting these events," Kuczkowski said. Sporting events "bring in visitors who will see what New Haven is like and have a positive experience." However, not all sports are necessarily worth the expense.

While sports are certainly good for the city, it is not clear that spending millions of dollars on sports has been the best allocation of funds for New Haven. Nonetheless, the city's government is committed to supporting sports. "The true value [of sports] is as a way to get together as a community," Kuczkowski said. "We view them as beneficial to the city. We have an interest in keeping sporting events."

Graphic by Sara Edward-Corbett.

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