Border Football
From the Believe It or Not Department
With migrants dying along the U.S. border with Mexico, and immigration refom percolating in Congress, one might guess that state and local politicians in the border region were focusing on immigration. Not so! As it turns out, it is gaining a professional football team that is at the forefront. Read on:
March 20, 2006 El Paso-Ciudad Juarez-New Mexico News
Mega-projects: The Kick-Off of the “Border Raiders?”
Divided by a border, elected officials from the Paso del Norte region are joining together for a common project: bringing professional football to the border. At a Ciudad Juarez meeting this month, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes announced the establishment of a binational commission to explore the feasibility of landing a United States National Football League team in the Paso del Norte border region within the next 5 to 6 years. Joining Richardson and Reyes in the cross-border initiative are El Paso Mayor John Cook, Ciudad Juarez Mayor Hector Murguia Lardizabal, Las Cruces Mayor William Mattiache and Mayor Ruben Segura of Sunland Park, New Mexico.
Boosting the project in Santa Fe, Gov. Richardson promoted a new NFL team as an economic development tool. Speaking in Santa Fe, the Democratic governor contended a professional football franchise “could create good jobs and new opportunities for business in our state.” Although a clear plan is far from being presented, comments by elected officials indicate that each of the cities interested in the project will try to draw some benefit from it.
According to Gov. Richardson and Mayor Mattiace, Albuquerque could the headquarters of an eventual franchisee while home games might be played in El Paso or Ciudad Juarez and spring training conducted at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
Also, Gov. Richardson and the other officials behind the border football project are attempting to tweak the interest of the private sector in investing money on a dream team. Businessmen from Ciudad Juarez attended the closed meeting where the proposal was presented. Although few of the attendees were publicly identified, one name mentioned was Ibarra, a family prominent in the construction industry and the current owners of the Indios de Ciudad Juarez professional soccer team.
A prime mover of the sports mega-project, Gov. Richardson has been working on interesting a football team in New Mexico and the border region for some time. He’s met with representatives of the Dallas Cowboys and other teams, conferred with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and hired California sports consultant Dan Barrett to study the project. Upwards of $500,000 dollars in tax dollars from New Mexico have been earmarked for the pilot study.
The big issues surrounding the project are, of course, costs and benefits for local governments and economies. In 2001, Denver’s Invesco field where the Broncos play opened for games with a price tag of $400 million dollars. In recent years, governments in many US cities have granted public subsidies for the construction of sports complexes used by privately-owned teams.
A 2000 review of previous experiences in some US cities by Oklahoma economist Dr. Daniel Sutter found a very modest economic impact from publicly-subsidized stadium sports.
Dr. Sutter noted that claims of job creation were overblown in some cases, while spending on other forms of entertainment like movies and amusement parks decreased and shifted to professional sports. Restaurants close to stadiums cashed in but eateries near theaters lost out, according to Dr. Sutter.
The “Border Raiders” project is already drawing criticism, especially from members of New Mexico’s Republican Party.
New Mexico state Senator Joe Carraro, for instance, attacked the state-funded pilot study as “frivolous.”
Rejecting the notion that a pro team would relocate to New Mexico, Senator Carraro contended that the state expenditure on the study was “money (taken from) kids going to school.”
A possible National Football League franchise is the latest in a series of publicly-supported mega-projects that are emerging as future economic locomotives of the Paso del Norte border region. El Paso is slated for a major expansion of Fort Bliss, while the Southwest Regional Spaceport, bolstered by subsidies from the New Mexico State Legislature, is sited for the desert north of Las Cruces.
Officials from both Mexico and the US are pushing the twin city of San Jeronimo-Santa Teresa planned for the New Mexico-Chihuahua border as the locus for much of the manufacturing industry in the future.
While the Fort Bliss and Spaceport projects are moving ahead with little controversy, organized opposition to the San Jeronimo-Santa Teresa is picking up steam in Ciudad Juarez because of fears that tax dollars needed for pressing social needs will be instead spent on subsidizing the new border city.
Sources: El Diario de Ciudad Juarez, March 19, 2006. Article by Lorena Figueroa. Norte, March 17, 2006. Article by Adrian Ventura Lares. El Paso Times, March 17, 2006. Article by Louie Gilot. Albuquerque Tribune, March 16, 2006. Article by Kate Nash. Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico
KJ