Already in the Valley, tourists are hit with fees for hotel rooms and rental cars. Those tariffs have helped build America West Arena and continue to support Cactus League baseball.

"There's a 'Welcome' banner at the airport, but then (tourists) get slapped with various taxes," said Rick Webster, a government affairs agent with the Travel Industry Association of America.

Webster, who monitors tourist taxes for the lobbying group, said that cities started hiking such taxes within the past four years.

So far, taxes haven't dented tourism. But Webster warned that convention planners and visitors could soon start comparing tax tables when deciding destinations.

Tourism taxes in Phoenix are still below the average charged by the nation's top tourist destinations.

Phoenix visitors now pay a 10.35 percent tax on hotel rooms, including sales tax. That's less than the average of 12.5 percent, according to a Travel Association of America study.

The city's rental car tax at the airport is 23.8 percent, including sales tax, plus a $2.50 Cactus League surcharge. The average airport rate is 18.15 percent, with an average surcharge of $2.45.

Hotel taxes garnered about $92.4 million for the state last fiscal year, according to the Arizona Department of Revenue. The money goes into the general fund, some of it used to promote tourism.

It's unclear how much rental cars brought in because that tax is lumped in with rentals of appliances and furniture. But the $2.50 surcharge on each rental brought in just over $5.4 million last fiscal year, said Vince Perez, a spokesman for the state's tax department.

Bank One Ballpark, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, was funded partially with a quarter-cent hike in sales tax. That controversial move culminated in the nearly fatal shooting of Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox by a man upset at the hike.

Tourist taxes don't carry the same political volatility.

"What an easy sell if you've got to put it on the ballot," Webster said.

A KAET-TV (Channel 8) poll last week hinted at more public support for using taxes to build the stadium if those taxes were on hotel rooms and car rentals.

The poll indicated that 46 percent favored a stadium funded by taxes on tourism, compared with 35 percent who supported funding with a countywide tax.

The task force looking into the new Arizona Cardinals stadium hasn't addressed funding yet.

Mark Hodgdon, general manager of the tony Phoenician resort, said that yearly guests recognize the bump in bed tax every time it happens.

"We have our guests question it," he said, "but they're not at the point where they're sensitized to the point where they've stated they're not coming back."

Seattle has a hotel tax rate of 15.6 percent, which includes funds for the Convention Center and the King Dome. The city also recently raised its restaurant meal tax to help pay for Safeco Field.

But those taxes haven't affected tourism much, said Wolfgang Rood, a consultant for the city's hotel industry. The occupancy rate was 77.3 percent in 1998, up from 76.2 percent the year before, Rood said.

Jim Austin, a spokesman for the Valley's Pointe resorts, said that even though the taxes don't cause a noticeable dip in tourists, the idea of making visitors pay for a stadium is patently unfair.

"Is it the right thing, or is it the cowardly way out of it?" he asked.