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Tuesday, July 30
 
Proposal includes surcharge on game tickets

Associated Press

PHOENIX -- In the process of elimination that site selection for an Arizona Cardinals stadium has become, it was almost inevitable that Tempe would get back in the act.

The community had the original preferred site of the state Tourism and Sports Authority, backed another at Arizona State University when the first fell through and decided Monday night to endorse a third parcel of land that wasn't in consideration two weeks ago.

Tempe's City Council approved the 98-acre site at Interstate 10 and Warner Road on Monday night and ordered its planners to meet with their TSA counterparts Tuesday.

"It will be quite ironic if, after going through Avondale and Glendale and the Gila River tribe, and Mesa running into problems, we can bring this project back to the East Valley a stone's throw from the Cardinals training facility,'' Tempe Mayor Neil Giuliano said.

To avoid any use of taxpayer funds for the $350 million project, Tempe is asking the TSA to impose a $4 facility-use surcharge on every ticket sold for events at the site and return the money to the city to help retire $25.8 million in bonds it must issue to pay for infrastructure.

Other revenue from Tempe's proposal would come from two 1.8 percent sales taxes -- one on construction and the other on ticket, parking and concessions sales.

Excess revenue would be divided among the Cardinals, the TSA and the Fiesta Bowl.

Planners envision the stadium attracting future Super Bowls, concerts, conventions and NCAA Final Fours. The Fiesta Bowl, now played at Arizona State's Sun Devil Stadium, has pledged to move into the new building.

The TSA faces a drop-dead date as the result of strong opposition to two locations it previously approved. Citizens forced a city election on nearby Mesa's proposed site in June, and the state Legislature directed the TSA to lock up a site by Sept. 12 or face a public vote on whether to pull the plug on the authority.

Tempe's site meets several criteria -- it is next to a major freeway and close to two others, and its immediate neighbors would be the buildings of high-tech companies.

Activists who complained the stadium would ruin a west Mesa neighborhood gathered 17,000 signatures in separate petition drives to force a Sept. 10 election on the Mesa site. As a result, the TSA took away Mesa's exclusive negotiating rights and reopened bidding June 25, but allowed the city to continue refining its bid pending the outcome of the election.

In November, a site close to Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix was scrapped because of opposition from the Federal Aviation Administration and Phoenix officials, who said the huge building would be too close to takeoff and landing zones to allow jetliners to operate safely.

Seventeen other sites were proposed, and Tempe backed one at a spot on the ASU campus. Meanwhile, landowner Emerald Properties suggested the I-10 site on its own.

"They pulled it back from consideration when it became obvious there were other sites that were receiving more attention,'' Giuliano said. "It never got to the point where Tempe was sponsoring the site.''

Tempe backers of a Cardinals site approached Emerald again July 19, days after the Gila River Indian Community decided to fold its stadium bid.

The TSA asked Glendale, where a hockey arena for the Phoenix Coyotes is being built, to enter the bidding process early this month, and the west Phoenix suburb was considered a front-runner.




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