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Goldeyes pay their share for ballpark, says consultant

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City negotiators will offer some concessions in their next attempt to work out a lease with the Winnipeg Goldeyes, but it’s not clear if the team will accept the new terms.

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The latest proposal partially retreats from an earlier city stance that aimed to hike the land lease price from $1 to $150,000 per year, eliminate all previous municipal tax breaks and transfer the team’s two parking lots – along with their revenue – to the civic government.

A city report said the tax refunds alone amounted to about $342,000 of lost city revenue in 2018.

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Goldeyes owner Sam Katz rejected all of those terms Monday, as well as potential changes to sponsorship. Katz, who is also a former mayor of Winnipeg, said that deal would prove disastrous for the business.

“Now you want to take away our naming rights, our sponsorship, our entertainment tax (breaks), our parking. If you want us out of business, fine, that does it. Just tell us that,” Katz told council’s property and development committee on Monday.

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Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital), who chairs the committee, has argued the Goldeyes’ business model has proven viable, so they no longer need a $1-per-year lease for the city land Shaw Park sits on.

But Mayes also argued the city would benefit from securing a new deal with the team, once its current lease expires in July 2023. He said the Goldeyes help make downtown vibrant by attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to the area each year.

“We could take a very hard line (in negotiations) but then we’d end up with an empty stadium … We’ll keep talking, I think (this) gets us closer,” said Mayes following Monday’s meeting. “I think we made a good faith effort to try and get it resolved.”

Specifically, the committee directed city staff to return to the negotiating table with terms more favourable to the team. Those terms call for the city to charge $50,000 of rent per year, claim 10% (instead of 100%) of the site’s parking revenues and waive a municipal sponsorship policy.

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Another proposed term calls on the city to rebate the Goldeyes entertainment taxes as long as a similar tax break lasts for Winnipeg Jets’ owner True North.

In a 3-1 vote, the committee directed city staff to resume negotiations, which will be guided by those conditions.

Only Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) voted against that motion, arguing it wasn’t immediately clear what value the city’s new terms would produce for taxpayers.

Katz said he must assess the numbers to determine if the revised proposal is viable.

“Now that we’ve heard that, we’ll start doing some number crunching ourselves and see if it makes sense and see whether it works or not,” he said.

Katz noted the Goldeyes hired a consultant this spring who found the team’s existing lease sees it pay much higher annual fees than many of its counterparts, once rent, taxes and capital costs are factored in.

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The report found the Goldeyes were the only members of a 12-team comparison group to pay property or business taxes. And with rent and taxes combined, the report found the Goldeyes annual city payments averaged about $201,438 more than the average of the other 11 teams.

Consultant John Dittrich also states the Goldeyes paid $9.6 million more to build their stadium than the other teams did, on average.

Katz said the team does want to work out a new lease with the city soon. He said a new long-term agreement would help the team secure financing for upgrades, including a new scoreboard and extended safety nets to protect fans.

A new lease agreement would require city council approval.

jpursaga@postmedia.com

Twitter: @pursagawpgsun

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