Your wallet, please

Let's get a few things straight about the Atlanta Falcons.

First, the team is fun to watch and great for our often-battered city pride. The Falcons just played their 43rd consecutive sellout game in the Georgia Dome. Some 40,000 people are on the waiting list to snatch up coveted season tickets. In bygone years, you could have nuked the stadium and not harmed anyone but players.

Second, Falcons owner Arthur Blank is a darn good fellow. Compared to other billionaire sports franchise owners -- Yankees el jefe George Steinbrenner and Buccaneers rapacious pirate-in-chief Malcolm Glazer come to mind -- Blank is a saint, attested to by his many charitable endeavors on behalf of children, the environment and the arts.

Third, don't believe the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on anything about Blank's campaign to get your money to build a new stadium. The daily either is the most gullible newspaper in the galaxy, or it has sold itself as a conduit for spin.

Consider: On Dec. 3, 2001, an AJC story proclaimed the Falcons weren't on the block, quoting Rankin Smith's son Taylor: "If this team was for sale, if anyone was motivated to sell this team, I would know it."

Well, duh, any team-watcher with at least a double-digit IQ knew that statement was unadulterated falconshit. Four days later, the franchise was sold to Blank.

Since then, the newspaper has done little to forecast the obvious: New owners will want new stadiums.

A column I wrote on Dec. 12, 2001, suggested that sooner or later Blank would try to wiggle out of the Georgia Dome lease. Blank would toil diligently to boost excitement in the team; then in five to six years, he'd announce plans for a new stadium.

That's exactly what happened last week. The Big Falconer will let the AJC create sideline diversions while he goes for a quarterback sneak to win public funding.

The Falcons can't abandon the Dome until their lease runs out (2020) or the bonds are paid off (2016). But key decisions, especially on who pays for a new stadium, will be made long before those dates.

For a backdrop, we'll see races for a new mayor in 2009 and, if Sonny Perdue wins re-election, a new governor in 2010. The history of stadium deals across the nation has shown that few politicians will safeguard the public treasury when teams come looking for welfare.

All a sports mogul has to say -- as Rankin Smith did when in the late 1980s he muscled state funding for the Dome -- is: "I might move the team if I don't get what I want." The politicians immediately wet their pants in panicky fear of voters blaming them for "losing" the team. Taxpayers' pockets are then picked for whatever the franchise owner demands.

It will take hard cash from every Georgian, not just those in Atlanta, to build the Falcons' Pleasure Dome. This state isn't wealthy. The number of impoverished Georgians is 12.5 percent greater than the national average; we rank No. 8 among the states in citizens without health insurance. Many school districts are starved for funding. We've tossed thousands of poor children off of medical plans. Critical needs for transit and other infrastructure lack money.

Yet, when Blank -- whose team, according to a Forbes 2006 report on franchises, has increased in value by $185 million, or 34 percent, since he bought it -- comes panhandling for a little gift, he'll get it.

How much? By 2016, stadium prices will top $1 billion, maybe $1.5 billion for a retractable dome stadium, which it appears the Falcons want. Blank contends he doesn't want the best deal in the league, but can't live with a bad deal such as he now has. Interpreted, that means he'll starve himself and settle for an 80-20 split. Did the state pay 80 percent of your business's overhead?

When asked if Blank would move the Falcons to another city, his spokeswoman, Kim Shreckengost, told me: "His clear preference is to keep the team in Atlanta." Which, to quibble, means he'll threaten to move.

Polls show overwhelming citizen antipathy toward public funding of stadiums -- a Rasmussen Research report put the number at 64 percent. In the last week, the Falcons' own fan bulletin board has been flooded by comments such as this: "As popular as the Falcons are ... much of that will go by the boards if (Blank) attempts to get a new stadium built on the taxpayer's dime."

Blank justifies seeking welfare in a unique manner. The bulk of his wealth is going to his charitable foundation. Yet that means public funds will be laundered through the team to support the causes Blank chooses. Sorry, I'd rather pick my own charities.

You'll hear a lot from the media about the "value" teams bring cities. It's hogwash. Study after study shows pro teams aren't economic assets -- they basically take entertainment dollars from many small businesses and channel them to one team owner and a handful of overpaid athletes. Studies by Phil Porter, an economist in Tampa, have demonstrated that even Super Bowls are a wash -- sales tax receipts during game weekends aren't significantly greater than at other times.

Porter also studied the impact of public subsidies on teams. In a report this summer, he concluded teams would end up in the same cities where they now play even if politicians slammed the lid on the welfare chest. The reason? Metro areas such as Atlanta have the fan base teams need.

So, Arthur, we love you. But considering that less than 3 percent of residents in the metro area will ever go see a game and that we don't need to spend our precious tax dollars on frivolous entertainment, please build your own stadium.

For John Sugg's earlier columns on the Falcons, go to www.atlanta.creativeloafing.com/falcons1 and www.atlanta.creativeloafing.com/falcons2.