OPINION


Sunday, September 12, 1982.

________________ The Michigan Daily

4

ILIR, o
W HEN THE Institute for Labor and
Industrial Relations went under review
for budget cuts or possible elimination, one real
estate company tried to cash in on the unit's
shaky status. Prospecting for professors in-
stead of gold, they offered to sell the homes of
ILIR staffers-before either the review's
results or the pink slips came in.
Now, ILIR employees can put those "For
Sale" signs back in the garage.

override

A high-level subcommittee recommended
that ILIR be kept alive, but with a reduced
budget.
The recommendation was good news for the
institute, which conducted a summer-long.
publicity campaign to save itself from being
scrapped. By sending out press releases,
collecting letters of support, and publicizing its
25th anniversary, ILIR sang its own praises
loudly en'6ugh for the review committee to take
note.
The recommendation was bad news,
however, far University efforts to stay on
schedule with plans to funnel money to high
priority areas. Cuts in ILIR's budget will free
up $150,000-a mere drop in the $20,000,000
bucket the University wants to redirect over
the next five years.
New plea for Arroyo?
T HE CONTROVERSIAL insanity defense
may surface again in Ann Arbor iii the
case of Arthur Arroyo, the former University
employee accused of setting fire to the
Economics Building.

survive;
At pre-trial examinations in May, friends of
Arroyo said that the alleged arsonist told them
he started the Christmas Eve blaze because the
economics department was publishing*papers
endorsing President Reagan's economic
policies.
Arroyo's attorney was unsuccessful this
week in an attempt to throw out the confession
Arroyo made on a flight back from California,
where he was apprehended. Nelson charged
that detectives violated Arroyo's rights, but
Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Henry
Conlin ruled that the confession was made
voluntarily.
Surprise package
IT'S NOT TOO often that a personal setback
to President Reagan directly affects the
University and its students.
Last week, however, the House and Senate's
vote to kill the president's veto of an all-
important budget bill did just that: bring huge
smiles and big bucks to University ad-
ministrators and students alike.
Because of the veto override, the University
will get almost $600,000 more than expected in
federal financial aid this year. Nationally, the
rew appropriations bill provides students with
$217 million extra, a windfall budget officials
had suspected might be lost.
The House override was almost a sure thing,
according to University administrators, but the
Senate override was a pleasant surprise.
Because of the bill, Pell Grants for Univer-
sity students will go up from $1,674 to $1,800 this
year. Total funds for the Supplemental
Educational Opportunity Grant Program at the
University will go up $260,000, hitting $1.2
million for the year.
The administrative reaction: "Everybody's
very happy here."
The student reaction: Need we even say it?

Would Don Canham steer you wrong?

A truer blue

stadium thrives

And the turf, oh that wonderful All-Pro Turf.,
Hundreds of square yards of artificial green
supporting our men of concrete on the playing
field.
Our boys in blue pounding that pure-green
wonder grass. $260,000 worth.
What a sight. And did it make the Wolverines
win?
Of course. It really, really works.
Cold spell
UDGET WOES are putting a chill on the
University these days.
On Aug. 30, administrators put a freeze on all
hiring in anticipation of a devastating loss in
state aid. The state's current attempt to juggle
its books into a constitutionally-required-
balance are expected to add up to an $8 million
cut in aid to the University. Such a cut would
affect not only hiring, but firing as well-400
employees would have to be layed off to make
up for the loss.
At the other end of the temperature scale, the
University is taking the heat for its proposed
pay freeze for non-faculty staff-a freeze which
also is blamed on lack of state aid. When top
administrators meet in the Regent's room next
week, clerks, .librarians, and technicians will
be gathering a few steps away in Regents'
Plaza to protest the pay plan.
Especially irritating to non-faculty staff is
the fact that professors will be granted salary
hikes under the pay plan. "We feel this is being
made a school for rich kids and professors, and
everybody else can go to hell," one angry clerk
accused last week.
Professors also are unlikely to be affected bye
any layoffs if worst comes to worst with state
budget cuts.
It seems as if the faculty, at least, won't be
left out in the cold.
The Week in Review was compiled by
Daily editors Andrew Chapman and Juli
Hinds. i

Arroyo: Question of insanity surfaces

Arroyo's attorney hinted last week that he
may attempt to prove his client's innocence on
the grounds of mental illness.
Although state psychiatrists found Arroyo
criminally responsible for his actions, Public
Defender Mitchell Nelson claims Arroyo has
"very deep-seated psychological problems.'
Several of Arroyo's grievances against the
University have surfaced during the trial. Ann
Arbor police detectives said Arroyo felt the
University had discriminated against him
because of his sex. "He thought he was
superior to the other, female clerical workers,
and was taken ,advantage of because he was a
male," said Det. Daniel Branson.

THE WOLVERINES smoked the Badgers
yesterday, all in the maize and blue glory
of Michigan Stadium. The new Michigan
Stadium.
That's right, you heard correct. New paint,
new trees, new shrubbery, new carpeting in the
press box, and best of all-at the incredibly low
price of $260,000-an all-new All-Pro Turf.
And it really, really works.
Powerful royal blue warpaint on the stadium,
and subtle lavender blue flowers on the grass
outside. It's all here for your football watching
pleasure. Would Don Canham steer you wrong?
Seventy dollars for the picnic tables, $8,000
for the carpeting in the press box, $250 per pon-
derous pinetree. What a deal. What a steal.
Why didn't they do this last year?

I

a m b t aniveityf Ma
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan

Paying for all
Public burden,

stadiums:

Vol. XCIII, No: 4

420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

owner's dream

Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board

The Final Frontier, Inc.

T HE LAUNCH last week of the first
privately-owned rocket into space
marked a triumph for the small band
of Texans who built it. It also marked
the beginnings of capitalism in space.
No one really knows how-or
whether-private enterprise will
develop in space. The fledgling Space
Services Inc., the owner of the Texas,
rocket, has ambitious plans for
privately-launched satellites and even
monthly flights by 1987. But the com-
pany is operating on a very tight
budget, and is looking for another $15
million to $20 million in capital to
finance its next launching. It doesn't
expect to turn a profit until 1985.
Given those conditions, the success
of the first private venture into space is
far from being a sure bet. Never-
theless, the potential for private enter-
prise remains enormous.
If Space Services succeeds in
reducing the cost of space launches
and operations, great benefits could
accrue not only to the company's cor-
porate backers, but to other concerns
as well. Developing contries, for

example, which often simply cannot
afford to produce their own space
program or to participate in joint
space exploration efforts, might be
able to utilize private space developers
to expand their use of space. Reduced
costs also could allow smaller cor-
porations to take advantage of satellite
technology, and thereby increase the
benefit the public has derived from
space exploration.
But problems with private space
development persist. So far, there is no
firm regulatory appartus in place to
keep an eye on private space
developers, although a proposal to
lodge such control with the Federal
Aviation Administration was recently
introduced in the Senate. Many issues
such as adequate and just procedures
for ensuring that private space laun-
ches are both safe and have suitable
financial backing, remain unsettled.
Space Services this week launched a
new era in the development of space,
but to control this development
responsibly it's going to have to take
government along for the ride.

By Clark Norton
OAKLAND, Calif.- The
Oakland-Alameda County
Coliseum is one of the few
relative success stories in the an-
nals of publicly-built stadiums in
America. Since opening in 1966, it
has never lost money on
operating expenses.
Now, however, despite a long
history of sellout crowds at the
Coliseum, Oakland Raiders'
owner Al Davis is moving his
NFL team to Los Angeles-
strictly in pursuit of bigger
bucks. And while continued legal
challenges leave the ultimate
outcome of the Raiders' move in
doubt, one certainly does "remain
for the citizens of Oakland:
Whether or not their Coliseum,
stands full or empty, local tax-
payers will be shelling out $1.5
million for it every year until
2004.
OAKLAND is hardly alone in
its fiscal plight. Well over 50
publicly financed stadiums have
been erected or refurbished in the
past 20 years, with total costs-
including futuretinterest
payments, related highway and
subway construction, sewage
improvements, and the
like-estimated ultimately to run
as high as $6 billion. Taxpayers
have already laid out more than
$700 million in the past decade to
erect a dozen or so opulent new
stadiums. The average construc-
tion cost per seat? Some $800.
But that's cheap compared to
the scandal-ridden behemoth in
New Orleans known as the
Superdome, which rises like a
glistening golden mountain out of
the Louisiana bayous - and costs
nearly as much. This 70,000-seat
all-weather facility soaked
Louisiana taxpayers for $163
million, a whopping $2,200 per
seat. When state voters first
authorized its construction in
1966, they didn't know they'd
have to mortgage grandma's
gumbo to pay for it; they had

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Visitors Bureau president George
Demarest.
Nevertheless, it is clear that
any economic benefits that may
arise are by no means divided
equally among the taxpaying
public. According to Benjamin
Okner, a Brookings Institution
expert on the economic impact of
public subsidies to sports
stadiums, "To the extent that
subsidized rentals are not passed
on to consumers in the form of
lower prices or to players in the
form of higher salaries, the
prime beneficiaries of the local
government subsidies are the
owners of sports teams-most of
whom are extremely wealthy."


EPA

a pattern common across the
country:
" After the 1973 baseball season,
debt-riddled New York City
decided to purchase and refur-
bish rundown Yankee Stadium
for what then-Mayor John Lin-
dsay announced would cost $24
million. When the stadium
reopened in 1976, complete with
19 private lounges featuring wet
bars and bathrooms, expen-
ditures had zoomed to $125
million and were still rising;
* Robert Kennedy Stadium in
Washington, D.C., was completed
in 1961 to house the Senators
baseball team and the Redskins
football team. The district issued
bonds of $19.8 million to pay for
its construction, but-faced with
annual operating deficits in the
hundreds of thousands-never
managed to pay off the interest,
much less a cent of the principal,
in 18 years. Finally, in 1979,
Congress stepped in to retire the
bonds with federal funds. Mean-
while, RFK was now being used
only a few dates a year; the
Senators had skipped town eight
years before;
" Meadowlands, a multi-sport
complex in New Jersey that lured
the New York Giants football
team away from refurbished
Yankee Stadium, cost

the, nation. Annual tab for the
taxpayers: $35 million;
" Arlington, Texas, residents-
all 90,000 of them-have been
paying a long-term premium sin-
ce 1971 for the privilege of
making Texas Rangers out of the
former Washington Senators. In-
cluding improvements to
Arlington Stadium and other
costs, estimates are that city
taxpayers will shoulder a $21
million burden over a 30-year
period.
Stadium after stadium built
with public funds in the past 15
years-Riverfront Stadium in
Cincinnati; Three Rivers
Stadium in Pittsburgh; the all-
weather Silverdome in Pontiac,
Mich.; Kansas City's Truman
Sports Complex, and Atlanta-
Fulton County Stadium in
Georgia have consistently
operated in the red. "No stadium
in the country is making money,
if you add up all the expenses,"
says former Pontiac deputy city
manager Gary Webster.
So why do we keep building
them? Municipal pride, cer-
tainly, is one reason. But stadium
proponents also argue that
stadiums more than repay their
public investment by generating
cash in the community. "Reds"
fans spend at least $40 million a

Although team owners and
public officials are notoriously
closemouthed about the terms of
their rental leases, a
congressional hearing probing
pro sports in 1976 found that for
the previous year, NFL clubs had
spent just 6.4 percent of their
operation budgets on stadium
costs. A typical rental deal for.a
big league baseball or football
team calls for the stadium to
receive about 5 to 6 percent of
*gate receipts (often only after 4
minimum attendance figure is
reached), plus a widely varying
percentage (ranging from all to
none) of parking and concessions
revenue. In most cases, this
works out to roughly a few hun
dred thousand dollars a year
from each major tenant, about
the cost of one substitute guard in
the NBA.
Owners are able to extort these
sweetheart deals by threatening
to pull up stakes and movd
elsewhere, or never to move in at
all. The public officials, after all,
are at a distinct disadvpntage in
the bargaining: With their own
prestige on the line, perhaps
having mortgaged a healthy
chunk of their community's
financial future as well, they can
hardly threaten to put wheels on
their stadiums and move them to
Poughkeepsie.

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