Rangers' New Ballpark Deal Looks Worse and Worse for Arlington Taxpayers

The Texas Rangers and the city of Arlington have been hard at work planning a new stadium for the ball club, financed by a 50-50 split in public and private funds. That sounds on the level, provided you've never read or heard anything about American stadium financing, ever. Originally, the new stadium had a $1 billion price tag, and the city of Arlington was on the hook for $500 million. A new investigation reveals the city could be paying more than three times that amount.

Local news outlet WFAA-TV has been all over this from the start. In June, they found several clauses in the agreement that would keep more money in the ball club's coffers, yet sadly that initial investigative piece—posted online with the incendiary URL "experts-new-arlington-stadium-deal-among-the-worst-in-the-country"—wasn't thorough enough. WFAA took a second look at the deal and discovered even more shenanigans:

"After further analysis, News 8 Investigates now has found its prior cost estimate to be too low. Instead, the actual cost and lost revenues to the city of Arlington may be closer to $1.675 billion over 30 years -- at least three times more than the $500 million price tag that city officials have told citizens."

Among their new findings: The Rangers will retain naming rights to the city-owned stadium, estimated to be worth $10 million annually (after deducting $2 million for rent), or $300 million in revenue for the team over the life of the deal. The team also controls personal seat licenses for the stadium it does not own, which could add up to $75 million over 30 years.

Jim Runzheimer, a local attorney, blasted the deal: "This is totally one-sided. This has to be close to the best deal ever cut in favor of a professional sports franchise and a government entity. It's incomprehensible."

At the very least, this is the best stadium deal cut in favor of a professional sports franchise since the deal between the Raiders and the city of Las Vegas last week.

Residents will vote on the measure on November 8th, and according to a poll conducted by WFAA-TV, there is an even split at 42 percent for both support and opposition.

[WFAA-TV]