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Teams, fans await results on stadiums
Copyright 2000 Times
Publishing Company As millions of people headed to the polls Tuesday to decide who will chart this country's course into the 21st century, scores of sports fans - or sports foes - were deciding their own issues. In Phoenix, Arizona Cardinals fans faced the possibility of losing their team if they did not pass Proposition 302, which would raise tourist taxes in Maricopa County to assist in paying $236-million of a new $331-million football stadium. Proponents were confident residents would follow the recent trend of saying yes to taxpayer-funded sports facilities. Thirty-five percent of Proposition 302's additional tax revenue would be used to pay for the stadium. The rest would go for expanding the spring training Cactus League, funding youth sports and promoting tourism. The Cardinals share a stadium with Arizona State University in Tempe. Many believe the team will leave if the proposition failed. In Houston, Harris County residents decided whether to earmark a share of existing tourist taxes to pay for a new stadium, this one a $255.7-million arena for the NBA's Rockets, the WNBA's Comets and the minor-league Aeros hockey team. Last year voters rejected an arena bond issue. Proponents and opponents agreed that approval of the existing tax was more than likely. Houston voters also decided whether to pass a sales tax that would create a fund necessary to secure the 2012 Summer Olympics. In Brown County, Wis., citizens who in September voted for a sales tax to renovate the Packers' legendary Lambeau Field decided whether to sell the stadium's naming rights. Die-hard fans do not want to change the name of one of football's shrines and site of what some believe to be the greatest game ever, the 1967 "Ice Bowl," a dramatic 21-17 Green Bay victory over Dallas that is captured forever by NFL Films and has since launched a million John Facenda "frozen tundra" impersonations. Anti-tax advocates supported
selling the rights to pay down the debt. |
