It's game, set, match for tourist tax

By Tom Jackson, Tampa Tribune
Copyright 2001 The Tribune Co.
Article date: July 19, 2001
 

In a perfect world, or, more precisely, in an Adam Smith, free-market perfect world, governments would not go around building sports arenas in which private enterprise would stage events which would, in turn, benefit private enterprise.

In that Smithian world, such endeavors would stand or fall on their ability to weather market forces.

However - and this is a regional-mall-sized however - in that world, governments would not go around slapping taxes on folks sleeping far from home.

But this is not that world.

This is the world in which local governments tax tourism to promote tourism. In that world, it is utterly appropriate for public money to be reinvested (which is the correct term) in the private enterprise that created the taxing opportunity in the first place.

Which brings us to the proposed tennis stadium at Saddlebrook and the high likelihood that, in fewer than 48 months - shorter than many car leases - central Pasco County could be no less than a regional, and occasionally international, hub of tennis activity.

Considering Saddlebrook's contribution to the $5 million-plus sitting in the tourist tax account (think: lion's share; now, add 20 percent), it is beyond appropriate that the first dip into the kitty should suit the resort's pleasure, particularly if it also makes sense for the county.

And a tennis stadium does exactly that.


Complaints Miss Mark

Criticisms of the tennis proposal include that it would attract only elitists, and would be sparingly used. Wrong. And wrong again. Double fault.

Leaving aside for the moment the easy argument that sister stars Serena and Venus Williams learned tennis on Los Angeles public courts where it was not unusual to discover bullet casings, tennis - well past its boom - still attracts a lively cross section of players and spectators. Many of them would be lured to events the stadium might host when it's not welcoming the game's best.

Kevin O'Connor, Saddlebrook's vice president of sports, imagines a wide array of United States Tennis Association events, from junior and adult age-group amateur championships to mini-tour professional tournaments.

Other opportunities abound, from international team competitions such as the Davis Cup, for men, and its women's equivalent, the Federation Cup, to university and high school events.

College teams, in particular, might be eager for another invitational to be included with springtime tournaments at the universities of Florida, South Florida and Miami.


Aced By The 135-MPH Argument

The beauty of all of them, says Saddlebrook owner Tom Dempsey, is that they would put heads in beds. And not just Saddlebrook beds. Families travel to junior and collegiate events, and they tend to choose value-priced motels. Says Dempsey, "We wouldn't even be on their radar screens."

A study by the consulting group KPMG indicates that a tennis stadium would be the cheapest project to build, and the most likely to pay for itself. Add Dempsey's guarantee against operating losses, and poking holes in the Saddlebrook proposal is tougher than Goran Ivanisevic's serve.

More bracing, KPMG found that other notions, including a performing arts center, an amphitheater, a multipurpose arena and a youth sports complex, offer no bang for the tax buck.

Again, in a perfect, market-driven world, we wouldn't be having this discussion. But, because we are, the debate hinges on two questions, and only two questions. If not this, what? If not now, when?

The answers are inescapable. Tennis. Now.
 

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