Detroit Tigers display hypocrisy over phantom ticket tax

I have been a Detroit Tiger fan since I was 9 years-old, and I really loved Tiger Stadium before that historic gem was destroyed in favor of a corporate stadium financed in large part by public money.

The budget mess in Lansing has been dominating the headlines, and clearly we need to reform the tax structure and find some new revenue in order to continue to fund schools, police, fire and other essential services. One of the many things talked about to do that was a tax on tickets to entertainment. It was never seriously discussed by the Michigan Legislature, let alone proposed, but that didn’t stop the hysterical opposition to it.

I’m such a big fan Tigers fan that I get an email result of every game, as well as promotional email from the Tigers. Last week I was surprised to get an email that did not talk about sports or the Tigers but about politics. They are urging people to contact their state Senator or Representative to fight against the phantom ticket tax.

“This tax is not on the sports teams - it is on you - the fans. And all of us at the Detroit Tigers organization believe it is wrong to target the working families. Michigan would be the only state in the region to tax families attending movies, sporting events and concerts.”

The only state in the region?

It then advertised a web site. How hypocritical is it for the Tigers to stand up against a tax?

Comerica Park was built with tax money that is still being collected. The stadium was financed with $115 million, or 38 percent, from 2 percent rental-car tax and 1 percent hotel tax and money from Indian casino revenue.

If you save it they will come

If you build it, they will come, or to modify the famous premise of the classic Kevin Costner baseball movie “Field of Dreams,” if you refurbish it they will come. It being historic Tiger Stadium. I know I will come.

Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy is working hard to preserve what’s left of historic Tiger Stadium at one of the most famous addresses in U.S. History, Michigan and Trumbull. Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy plans to use the preserved portion of the old ballpark as a magnet for economic development in a distressed area, and the ambitious $27 million redevelopment project includes a dugout-to-dugout section that would be converted to commercial space and a community center. The playing field would be renovated for youth and high school baseball and community events.

What a thrill it would be to play on the same field as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, George Kell, Al Kaline, Bill Freehan, Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, not to mention Detroit Lions Lem Barney, Joe Schmidt, Bobby Layne and Charlie Sanders.

Renovated Tiger Stadium will include museum quality exhibits, a banquet hall and retail. Fans will be able to explore the clubhouses, dugouts and the broadcast booth. The most exciting feature that will bring visitors from all over the world to the Stadium and Detroit will be the Harwell Museum.

Hall of Fame Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell has been the voice of the Tigers from 1960 to 2002, and his collection of baseball memorabilia is second only to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. I made a pilgrimage to Cooperstown a few years ago, and it is an experience I will never forget. I hesitate to put a price tag on Ernie’s collection, considering he is priceless, but it is easily in the millions of dollars. It would be great to be Cooperstown Midwest.

The good news is President Obama‘s recently approved $410-billion omnibus spending bill has a $3.8 million expenditure to help preserve Tiger Stadium and spur economic development. Some idiots, both at the national level and amazingly even here in our own state, oppose that as wasteful spending. Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn pushed an amendment to the legislation that would strip out 11 earmarks that he said “looked a little stinky to me.” Tiger Stadium was No. 2 on Coburn’s hit list. That ridiculous amendment failed.

Preservation of historic buildings is an important function, and is there anything more historic to more generations of Michiganders that Tiger Stadium and the Corner?

Professional baseball has been played at the Corner of Michigan and Trumbull since 1895, and from 1912 to 1999 generations of fathers and sons have enjoyed watching great baseball while making memories that last a lifetime, whether it was at Bennett Park, Navin Field, Briggs Stadium or Tiger Stadium.

Memories of the first time people ever set foot in Tiger Stadium are as numerous as mosquitoes on a July evening in Michigan. I was just 10-years-old when I made a group trip with the Monroe Midget Baseball League in 1968. We were all in our uniforms, and I will never forget when I stepped up the ramp to the left field bleachers and took in the field for the first time. The green of the outfield grass literally took my breath away, and it cemented my growing love affair with baseball and Tiger Stadium that has never ended; even when it was severely tested during the season when a strike wiped out the World Series.

To really get a feel for Tiger Stadium, read the book by Tom Stanton called “The Final Season.” The journalist attended all 81 homes in the final season, and it’s a touching and memorable book. His book was chosen as the book for Livingston Reads 2009, and he will be appearing at the Howell Carnegie District Library at 6:30 p.m. March 26. Registration is not required.

More importantly, to make a donation to save Tiger Stadium and preserve the most historic ball park in America, send a personal check to

The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy
PO Box 141193
Detroit, MI 48214

The Conservancy is a tax-exempt organization and your donation is tax-deductible.