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Ticket Tax, Anyone?

I just had another idea.

Since the Indianapolis Colts are balking at contributing to close the Capital Improvement Board $47 million shortfall, I have another idea and Jim Irsay is the one who provided it.

In an interview this weekend with the Indianapolis Star, Irsay said a deal was deal and he has no desire to renegotiate his lease. He also says he opposes increasing the ticket tax from 6-10 percent. He said it would be onerous on a small market. He also said it would generate about $1.3 billion over the life of the lease with the city.

I did a little math on that, $1.3 billion over 30 years equals about $43 million a year. The CIB shortfall is $47 million, so by raising taxes on ticket sales most of the shortfall goes away and the people who use the facility are the ones who are paying for it. 

And as long as the ticket tax is imposed equally on the Pacers and the Indians, the Colts really can’t complain because that’s what the lease allows, right?

Remember, a deal’s a deal!  How do you like that one, Jim? 

Posted: 04|27|09 at 6:49 am by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
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  • pascal

    If you make a deal with your cat it is not likely to be an enforcable contract. Irsay, making “a deal” with the halfwits (unqualified men representing the City) is a similar sort of situation.

  • Zappatista

    I agree, with the exception of the Indians. The whole point of a minor league team (besides growing talent for the MLB) is to provide a good value for families to attend, not to mention it gets kids excited about baseball. So, outside of adding the Indians, I am fine with it.

  • John Howard

    If they put a tax on tickets it should be tied to the debt of the respective facility, not flat rate across the board. The Indians shouldn’t be penalized for the LOS cost. Make it a hefty tax, too. I’m thinking 30-50% on the price of a Colts ticket would be about right. What with all the scalpers, the ticket prices CAN’T be terribly unaffordable right now, so go for it.

    Or just to the sensible and logical thing – have the CIB declare bankruptcy.

  • Think Again

    John Howard has it right.

    It will undoubtedly hurt the Colts. But they could always restructure their ticket prices, and lower the cost of the cheaper tickets.

    If my ticket is $40, and the tax is 50%, that makes my ticket $60. Reduce my ticket price to $15, and my ticket becomes $22.50.

    Just like the federal tax code, the wealthier folks can and should pay more.

    Irsay is right. He DOES have a deal. But somehow, somewhere he’ll need the city. At which time, it oughta cost.

  • http://www.kolehardfacts.blogspot.com Mike Kole

    Yes, 50% tax on Colts tickets. That should work just fine. The users of the facility should be the ones who pay. It is unjust to expect people who do not use the facility to pay for it.

  • IndyErnie

    Abdul what percentage did you use to arrive at the 43 million?

  • Taxpayer 834512

    I don’t like thrashing the Indians with this, but if we have to dodge a “discriminatory” contractual passage with uniformity, it appears the gloves are off and the reckoning is now. When everything runs smooth, Indianapolis can be a pro sports town. But, we’re too small a market to be stuck in a stadium rebuilding loop with multiple underfunded higher priorities, and a bad economy to boot. If pro teams really like it here, then unless they have a better offer, I suggest they tough it out with the rest of us for awhile.

  • Daw-g

    I came up with this idea some time last year. That way the “save the colts at all costs” people who wanted the new facility and gladly bent over when the Colts approached can fund the shortfall. Now these people will be putting their money where their mouths are!

  • Nick

    Al Capone was put in jail for tax evasion.

    Jim had better make sure he and his team members have paid all there taxes, don’t break any laws, or say anything stupid because NO ONE is going to give him any breaks. (What kind of offenses put you in jail?)

  • Jack

    Endorse the tickets paying for attending the dance. Other charges for use of the facility should be at a reasonable level to pay the bills, depreciation account, and moderate profit. Bothered as always with “think again” philosophy of soak the rich. Without the rich there is no jobs for anyone, without finances there are no taxes, no services, —where the “robin hood” philosophy is justified I do not know. This is an Indy made problem and an Indy problem to solve.

  • Think Again

    Jack, the rich alone don’t create jobs. It’s not a Robin Hood philosophy…you might want to try a basic economics class. Among industrial nations, our upper tax rates are the lowest. And all the others have mandated health insurance, which was, and is, the single-biggest drag on our economy.

    Those who can afford $75-250 tickets to a Colts game, can pay a higher tax. In this market, that may put 30-40,000 butts in seats. But if you want to fill that stadium, you’ve gotta have the cheap seats.

    Speaking of basic economics class, someone ought to send Polian and Irsay to one Their phantom $100 million “contribution” to Lucas is mostly made up of credits and charge-backs…few actual dollars.

  • Anonymous Nobody

    The Indians are by far getting the short end of the stick here. For one, The Schumacher family pays the CIB rent for use of Victory Field, and pays to maintain and operate Victory Field themselves. The CIB DOES NOT pay to operate or maintain Victory Field, unlike Conseco Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium and the RCA Dome before that.

    The Indians keep the revenue from concessions and gate, and pay the staff from those revenues. One difference, to be fair, the player payroll is managed and paid for by Major League Baseball since the major league club makes the contract with the player and then assigns the player to the minor leagues.

  • Anonymous Nobody

    “And all the others have mandated health insurance, which was, and is, the single-biggest drag on our economy.”

    All the others also have more restrictive tort systems, because you cannot “Sue the Crown”. You don’t have ambulance chasing lawyers (like Abdul strives to become :P ) suing every doctor and hospital in sight trying to hit the jackpot. This in itself drives the costs of health care up to where it is now.

    “Among industrial nations, our upper tax rates are the lowest.”

    Actually they are among the highest when you toss in AMT and corporate income taxes.

  • http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com Paul K. Ogden

    Jim Irsay is complaining about a ticket tax, yet has everyone forgotten the Colts jacked up ticket prices like 20% or more after the season?
    .
    I agree with Think Again. There is an unfortunate contractual provision on discriminatory taxes that might require the tax also be applied to the Indians.

  • http://edangleton@edangleton.com Ed

    Then give them all an out in the form of a new lease stating that if the team assumes or continues to assume responsiblity for the day-to-day operating costs of the facility, then no ticket tax will be applied.

  • Jack

    “Think Again”–I have a degree a MS degree in economics and no where did I ever study or read research that endorsed the philosophy of it is good to make the few pay for the many. I will even go further and proclaim myself as basically a either liberal conservative or a conservative liberal but either way making the top 20 percent of income people pay for almost 100% of cost of activities—and particularly as dumb an idea as for a sports venture is beyond anything truly defensible. Please choose some other model than the European models as there are extreme problems there also. And if not a “Robin Hood” philosophy no matter who endorses it then what is a better reference?

  • http://www.hoosiersforfairtaxation.com Melyssa

    I have yet to find anyone who can tell me how I have ever personally benefitted from the Colts or the Oil Can being located in my town. I personally have not prospered in anyway shape or form. To ask me or anyone else who doesn’t go to games to pay for this boondoggle defies common sense.

  • K B

    Irsay says a deal is a deal – yet he whined about the lease at the RCA Dome and I think the city accomodated him more than once. I remember him complaining about the seating at the dome, so the city built more sky boxes and added luxury seats, so after that renovation he complained about having fewer seats. Then he demands a new stadium but then enforces the payment to him for breaking the lease on the Dome.

  • Think Again

    yeah, right, Jack

  • Think Again

    Nobody: I love the Indians as much as the net guy, but the last time I checked, their rent was paltry.