A lesson on sports subsidies

The Utah Grizzlies' decision this week to suspend play for a season while trying to sell their American Hockey League franchise and acquire one in a lesser league is instructive. It shows just how volatile minor professional sports are.

That should be a caution for the Wasatch Front cities that now are competing for the opportunity to spend public money constructing a stadium for Real Salt Lake. Unlike the Grizzlies, Real is a major league team, but soccer is a minor American sport. Just ask fans of the old North American Soccer League, the major league that folded in 1984 despite once being home to the international star, Pele, and despite impressive attendance figures only a few years before.

Public funding for any sort of sports arena is foolish, but for a sport as shaky as soccer is in the United States, it's a big risk. Two Major League Soccer franchises have folded in recent years.

Not long ago, hockey was being touted as an economic development generator worthy of public investment. During the E Center's formative months, West Valley City officials were almost teary-eyed with excitement. They built an arena that, when all the interest payments, land acquisition and debt is combined, will cost $87.6 million over 25 years. Part of that cost was to be paid by lease payments by the Grizzlies of $1.2 million per year.

At the time, hockey seemed like a sure thing here. The Winter Olympics were only a few years away and West Valley City had just secured a commitment from Olympic organizers to use the E Center as the men's hockey venue. The Wasatch Front was developing an international reputation as a winter sports capital.

True to expectations, the Olympics were a hit. The gold medal game between the United States and Canada put the E Center on the world stage and created one of the sport's most memorable moments. But three years later the enthusiasm for hockey has receded like the banks of the Great Salt Lake during a drought. The NHL missed an entire season due to labor troubles, which took away a lot of interest generally. At the same time, the Grizzlies fell into last place and attendance at the E Center dwindled well below what team officials once said they needed in order to break even.

Team owner David Elmore, who also manages the E Center, hopes a team in a lower-level league that is cheaper to operate can be profitable. That's hardly a vote of confidence for the health of hockey in an Olympic city.