Grand Rapids scores $252M from taxpayers for new soccer stadium

Taxpayers are on the hook for a new soccer stadium in Grand Rapids. Michigan and Kent County are contributing at least $252 million to the project.

The stadium will create more than 450 new jobs, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a news release.

In August, the Michigan Strategic Fund approved a $252 million Transformational Brownfield Plan to add housing, parking, an amphitheater, a riverwalk, an apartment building and a soccer stadium to the Grand Rapids riverfront.

The stadium development will include a 134,500-square-foot, 8,500-seat soccer stadium located west of downtown, hosting the only team in a major professional sports league in Grand Rapids. It will include a full-size soccer pitch to support national and international matches.

Kent County already had a 5% excise tax on its lodging industry. Voters narrowly approved an increase to 8%, which will bring in another $8 million.

County commissioners approved an amendment in August to add aquariums and sports complexes to an ordinance that specifies how money from the excise tax can be spent.

A convention and arena authority governed by a seven-member board administers DeVos Place, DeVos Performance Hall and Van Andel Arena. It will also own and operate the soccer stadium.

Ivan Diaz, a Kent County commissioner, voted against a local tax increase that will help fund the stadium.

“I voted no on raising the tax because in my view, the parameters for how the revenue from the tax would be used was not and is not in the public interest,” stated Diaz in an email to CapCon.

“The fact is that these projects are being pushed by the DeVos and VanAndel families, who will likely own the soccer team and the vendors at the facility,” Diaz added.

A recent study by James Hohman, fiscal policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, concluded that taxpayer subsidies offered in the name of job creation almost always fail to deliver.

The state has spent $22.7 billion in business subsidies since 2000. Most of the money funded the auto industry, according to Hohman. Despite that, Michigan has lost 145,600 of the 315,000 auto industry jobs it had in 2000.

Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm experienced similar results after she spent millions of taxpayer dollars on green energy businesses. She touted massive job creation and said Michigan would be the green energy hub of the world. Her green energy revolution fizzled out.

Projects such as soccer stadiums don’t happen on their own, Kara Wood, executive director of Grand Action 2.0, said during a Nov. 7 Kent County Commission meeting.

“It’s through these intentional public private partnerships that make these transformational projects happen in our community,” she told meeting participants.

A sports venue is a questionable use of taxpayer funds, said Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton Township, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. She told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email she does not support the subsidy.

The history of Pontiac Silverdome provides a glimpse of what can happen when governments subsidize stadium construction and operations.

In 1975, the city of Pontiac paid $55.7 million to build the Silverdome. The Detroit Lions then played there until they relocated back to Detroit in 2002.

In 2009, a company bought the Silverdome for $583,000, according to Crain’s Detroit Business. This means the city sold the stadium for 1.05% of the original construction costs.