I love baseball.  As an extention, I love MLB.  Sure, they do stupid things from time to time, but overall I view them as the overseers at the highest level of the game I love.

But this time, they’ve gone too far.

The Cubs recently decided that they want to leave their Spring Training digs in Mesa.  Their contract with the city includes a clause that allows them to opt out, so they decided to opt out.  Although their current training facilities in Mesa are not horrible, they are among the oldest in the Cactus League and are too small.  They also are not set up particularly well for the Cubs purposes.

So, the Cubs opted out of their lease and the city of Mesa went to work to try to keep them in town.  After some back-and-forth with Mesa and Naples, FL, the Cubs decided to stay in Mesa.  The only stumbling block left in the path of officials in Mesa to close the deal is to find the funding to build the new Cubs facility.  The current price tag is $84 million.

The Arizona legislature promised to help and they came up with a funding proposal that would tax rental cars and tickets to Cactus League games.  Not much has been said about the rental car tax (despite the fact that the tax would make Arizona one of the most expensive states in the nation in which to rent a car), but there has been plenty of clamor over the tax on Cactus League tickets.

The opposition to the ticket charge has been led by White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf.  He was out in front of everyone else to oppose the tax.  This, despite the fact that Reinsdorf’s White Sox abandoned a taxpayer funded Spring Training facility in Tuscon to relocate to a more expensive taxpayer funded spring Training facility in Glendale.  It’s also worth noting that the White Sox play their regular season home games in a facility that was heavily subsidized with taxpayer funds.  Hypocricy, thy name is Jerry Reinsdorf.

I can’t tell you Reinsdorf’s motivations, but his opposition appears to be borne of contempt for the Cubs.  The money for the tax will not come out of his pocket.  The tax is on top of the price of the ticket and will amount to about $2.00 on a $25.00 ticket.  Although the tickets will be slightly more expensive, it is doubtful that the tax will have any meaningful negative impact on ticket sales.

In fact, if the Cubs end up leaving Arizona because the tax can not be passed and the funds to build the new facility can not be secured, no one will be hurt more by the move than the White Sox.  The Cubs are by far the biggest draw in the Cactus League and the biggest recipient of this benefit outside the Cubs is the White Sox.  If Chicagoans are going to travel to Arizona to see the Cubs, they might as well also see the White Sox while they are in the area.  But if these fans are not traveling to Arizona to see the Cubs, they also will not be purchasing White Sox tickets.  Besides being hypocritical, Reinsdorf’s opposition to the tax also appears to be bad business.

Among MLB owners, Reinsdorf is a bit of a ring leader and soon other MLB team owners followed his lead.  All of the owners of teams in  the Cactus League are now on record opposing the tax.  They all want the Cubs to stay in Arizona, they say, but they don’t want a tax on tickets to their games to pay for the Cubs to stay.  It’s unfair, they say, for a tax on Spring Training tickets for all teams games to benefit just one team (i.e. the Cubs).

To paraphrase what the owners are saying, they are okay with taxpayer funding for MLB team Spring Training facilities, but not if it involves taxing in any way, shape, or form, MLB Spring Training.  It’s okay if the State wants to tax hotel beds, or auto licensing fees, or bridge tolls, etc.  A tax on anything and everything is okay with them, as long as it doesn’t involve anything having to do directly with MLB Spring Training.

It also doesn’t matter that the biggest generator of tax funds for the Cubs new facility will be the Cubs themselves.  What could be fairer that that?

The Commerce Committee of the Arizona House of Representatives held hearings this past week on the proposed tax.  According to Jim Ripley of the East Valley Tribune, all MLB teams in the Cactus League had representatives on hand to testify against the tax.  In addition, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, the same guy who encouraged the Cubs to stay in Arizona, made a surprise appearance in opposition to the tax.  “Cubs, we want you to stay, but don’t ask us to be involved in helping you fund your new facility.”

Ripley’s article focuses a bit on the opposition of Tom Dorn who was at the hearing representing the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Ripley wrote:

Arizona Diamondbacks representative Tom Dorn chided Mesa and the Cubs for its ballgame ticket surcharge and car rental tax solution.  He proudly pointed out the Diamondbacks’ had avoided  being a burden on others by getting the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community to build a Cactus League stadium for them and the Colorado Rockies.

Now that’s chutzpah or worse—from a team whose downtown Phoenix stadium was 71 percent publicly financed, including a quarter cent sales tax levied on taxpayers throughout the county, not just in Phoenix.

We got ours.  The heck with Mesa and the Cubs.

Later in his article, Ripley points out that, by holding Spring Training on land owned by the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, purchases made at the stadium are not subject to sales taxes.  That means that, although the Diamondbacks did not use taxpayer funds to build their Spring Training facility, in the long-run, they are denying the state sales tax on purchases made at the facility.  Not only did the D-Backs use taxpayer funds to build their stadium in Phoenix, and then denied the state sales tax revenue by locating their Spring Training facility on Indian land, but they then went before the Arizona Legislature to brag about it.  Nice…

The bill eventually passed committee by a vote of 6-2, but faces an uphill battle in the full house.  The “Gang of 14,” as the Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan calls the other Cactus League owners, have significant political clout in Arizona and have made it clear that they are going to mount a vigorous fight against the tax.

Meanwhile, the Cubs are sitting on the sidelines allowing the politicians to battle it out.  As Cubs President Crane Kenney points out, the tax was not the Cubs’ idea:

Kenney said the surcharge was not the Cubs’ idea, despite the public perception. He said he did not know who came up with the plan. 

“We did not come up with the tax where we are the largest payer,” he said.

One of three things will eventually happen.  The first possibility is that the tax will pass and the Cubs new Spring Training facility will be built.  Second, this particular bill will not pass, but a different tax will be passed to fund the facilty.  This is the path the “Gang of 14″ is pushing for.  The third possibility is that no funding mechanism will be passed by the end of the year and the Cubs will then be free to re-engage Naples or anywhere else that is interested in hosting the Cubs and their Spring Training facility. 

Stay tuned.  The hypocricy and stupidity is just getting started.