DEL.ICIO.USSome cops call city-funded security at Philips Arena a waste
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, December 14, 2008
A dozen years ago, the owners of the Atlanta Hawks threatened to move the team to the suburbs. The downtown Omni coliseum wasn’t bringing in enough money.
Then-Mayor Bill Campbell and his staff put together an enticing package to keep the team in the city. The Hawks’ owner at the time, Turner Broadcasting System, took the deal.
ALLEN SULLIVAN / aesullivan@ajc.com
Under a contract the city signed – and which it says cannot be broken – cops must direct traffic whenever there’s a game or other event at Philips. Critics say other areas get shortchanged.
ALLEN SULLIVAN / aesullivan@ajc.com
Guaranteeing Philips Arena the free services of Atlanta police was worth it to keep top sports teams downtown, the city says.
Now one of those incentives is drawing criticism amid a financial crisis that has resulted in layoffs and furloughs at the Police Department: The city agreed to provide officers to handle traffic at all public events held at the Omni’s replacement, Philips Arena. And it agreed to do it for 35 years, according to the contract obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Corliss Claire, a community activist from southwest Atlanta, said the city already doesn’t have enough officers to keep communities safe, despite officers’ best efforts.
“I am concerned whether or not the city can fulfill that obligation without putting other areas at risk,” she said. “It’s just a terrible concern.”
Less than two miles from Philips, the city’s pro baseball franchise, the Atlanta Braves, pays for security at Turner Field by hiring off-duty police officers for home games, though a Philips official says the comparison is not a fair one.
The Atlanta police union has lobbied city officials to get out of the Philips contract, saying it’s inappropriate to put officers to work for a private business and that it hurts the short-staffed department. The off-duty work at Braves games does not affect the officers’ on-duty schedules.
“The bottom line is the APD is suffering severe manpower shortages,” said Atlanta Sgt. Scott Kreher, president of the police union. “Any way that we can put more officers out patrolling the street is what we want to do.”
But city officials say they are legally bound by the contract, which transferred when the Atlanta Spirit purchased the Hawks, the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team and the arena’s operating rights in 2004.
“We have every intention of keeping the promises that we made in that contract,” city Chief Operating Officer Greg Giornelli said.
An Atlanta Spirit official says taxpayers made out just fine by keeping the NBA franchise in Atlanta. After all, Turner took on about $160 million in debt to build Philips.
“It was a good deal for the city,” said Bob Williams, president of Philips Arena.
Breaking even
Atlanta’s budget has been battered this year, recently by an estimated $50 million to $60 million shortfall and another earlier this year that amounted to $140 million.
Mayor Shirley Franklin recently announced that all city and police employees will have their hours — and pay — cut by 10 percent to weather the financial storm. The announcement came a few months after the city laid off 372 employees and eliminated about 900 jobs.
At the Police Department, the budget woes have helped keep the city 375 officers short of its long-standing goal of 2,000 officers. The APD avoided having to lay off sworn officers this year, but it did lose 192 employees or positions, including 21 part-time administrative assistants.
Meanwhile, staffing all Philips’ events costs up to $500,000 a year in police salaries, according to APD estimates calculated using an officer’s average salary level. Over the past 12 years, that would add up to $6 million.
An economic boost?
The majority of pro sports franchises — about two-thirds — pay for their own police services, said Roger Noll, an economics professor at Stanford University who co-wrote the book “Sports, Jobs and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums.”
Atlanta’s contract came during a time when many cities offered inducements to keep pro teams from relocating, Noll said.
“That phenomenon causes cities, in moments of stress or panic, to give away things that they probably wouldn’t give away,” Noll said. “Today, it probably wouldn’t happen. Atlanta probably made this deal at the worst possible moment in time, when influence of teams was greatest.”
In the past decade or so, city governments have become less generous, Noll said. “We’re in a position now that teams can still get subsidies, but they’re not as big as they used to be,” Noll said.
Some economists argue that pro teams don’t really give cities an economic boost. One reason: If fans weren’t attending games, they’d be spending their money elsewhere in the city anyway. “The conclusion they reach is that downtown arenas basically break even,” Noll said.
Williams and others who favor the deal contend that Philips Arena has been a catalyst for development downtown.
“I would venture to say that it would have been devastating for the arena to leave downtown,” Williams said. “It has really transformed the entire area and truly is one of the city’s greatest assets and attractions.”
Pro teams do offer intangible benefits, such as the pride and the connection residents develop by rooting for their home team, said Mark Rosentraub, a public policy professor at Cleveland State University who studies the relationship between cities and sports teams.
Up to 24 officers per event
Philips Arena opened in 1999 after the Omni was torn down. Owned by the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority, the arena hosts about 210 public events, including sporting events, music concerts and conventions, which amounts to an average of four events per week, said Williams, the Atlanta Spirit executive.
The contract calls for up to 24 Atlanta police officers to work each event — close to the number of officers that staff one of the Police Department’s six police stations throughout the city on a given shift.
Generally, 12 officers handle traffic, nine work foot patrol and three are police supervisors at Philips. For crowded events, the officers spend more than five hours at the arena, before, during and after the events, according to Atlanta police.
Williams said the teams’ owners have no intention of letting the city out of the contract. He said the use of on-duty police officers is a small price for taxpayers to pay.
“It is a remarkably good deal for the taxpayers,” said Williams, who also was president of the Omni when TBS worked out the contract with city officials.
Williams said the officers get fans in and out of the area as fast as possible.
“If you can save time, it enhances the experience of the event,” Williams said. “You have a more valuable and enjoyable experience.”
A binding contract
The officers come from two sources: the department’s motorcycle unit and a foot patrol unit assigned to the police precinct that covers downtown Atlanta.
Their absence, Kreher said, “significantly impacts the department’s ability to fight crime and fight traffic.”
He also said working Philips events costs the department thousands of dollars in lost revenue from writing traffic tickets.
A former motorcycle officer, Sgt. Bill Cooper, voiced his displeasure about the deal in March 2007, a few months before he retired.
In a complaint to the city’s Ethics Board, Cooper asked the city to go to federal court to get an order “to stop Phillips [sic] Arena from demanding free police services.” But the city Law Department determined that the contract was binding, City Attorney Beth Chandler said.
Atlanta has a history of lending officers to pro teams, doing the same for the Braves as far back as the 1980s. At one point, officers juggled traffic duties for the Hawks, Braves and Thrashers. But the Braves’ arrangement, which was not put in writing, ended about four years ago, Kreher said.
Braves spokeswoman Beth Marshall confirmed that the Braves now pay for police services, but she declined to divulge the cost.
What’s good for the Braves, Kreher said, should be good for Philips Arena.
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