Field of Schemes new post New soccer stadium somehow fails to rain riches on Philly suburb

Hey, remember how a new soccer stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania was doing wonders for the local economy, according to a newspaper article that cited a single local union carpenter as its main source? How's that working out two years later?

Four years ago, former social-sciences professor John Linder questioned why promoters wanted to “bring soccer to a basketball town.” As mayor since January, he’s been trying to make the $122 million PPL Park, financed mostly with county and state funds, generate enough money to meet the city’s costs.

[Linder] may levy parking and amusement fees on mostly out-of-town fans. He also wants Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union to make a $500,000 payment in lieu of taxes that it missed in 2010. The team says it’s negotiating the fee.

“What they’re paying us doesn’t cover our expenses,” Linder said in a telephone interview. “I have a mandate to my citizens that we persevere to get the best bang for our buck.” ...

In Chester, 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Philadelphia, public funds covered about 71 percent of the cost of the stadium for the Union, which is in ninth place in the league’s 10-team Eastern Conference. Related residential projects and a convention center haven’t been built, leaving the city of 34,000 in a program for distressed communities that it entered in 1995. Chester’s poverty rate is almost triple the state average.

There isn't actually much in the way of economic impact details in this piece — maybe Bloomberg couldn't find any carpenters to lend their expertise — but the overall picture is certainly less rosy. The best part, meanwhile, is that Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz says he hasn't paid the back PILOTs he owes the city because nobody sent him a bill.

In related low-income-suburbs-who-thought-it-was-a-good-idea-to-build-soccer-stadiums news, meanwhile, residents of Bridgeview, Illinois, are really steamed about the $200 million in debt their town has racked up, in part by building a new stadium for the Chicago Fire. Best part of this article:

Mayor Steven Landek, who is also an appointed state senator running for election this fall, at first offered to meet privately in the homes of the handful of residents who complained.

But resident Julie Padilla told Landek that her husband was so angry he wouldn't let Landek in their house, and then she and two other residents asked Landek to hold a public forum. Landek said he would, although no date has been set.

from Field of Schemes http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2012/06/4989_new_soccer_stad.html