Professional sports leagues have long argued that the economic activity that accrues from their franchises' presence in communities justifies millions of dollars in public money to support teams with new stadiums, practice facilities and infrastructure improvements. Cities line up to host events such as the Super Bowl for the same reason, even though forecasts of economic bonanzas have repeatedly proved to be optimistic at best.
That will certainly be the case at the NBA's All-Star Game, given that (as the Orlando Sentinel has reported) the city has given the league permission to erect an eight-foot, opaque fence in front of businesses along Church Street across from Amway Center for the entire week leading up to the Feb. 26 game. The gated barrier, which the league says is necessary for security purposes, will permit entry only to people holding tickets to the game and other events taking place over the three-day weekend All-Star gala.
This leaves the area's businesses, most of which are owned by African-Americans, out of the economic-impact zone. (The sidewalk across the street will stay open, but that stretch of road will be closed to traffic for the week.) And as the paper noted, most shop owners had already endured slow business for more than two years during the arena construction and disappointing revenue figures since it opened in October 2010.
The merchants were initially offered two weeks of free rent, care of the city, but they say they want $3.5 million in compensation from the city and the league, and have begun lining up attorneys. After their initial complaints upon learning of the fence, they were given the option of being included within the cordoned-off section, but they turned it down because it would have meant that the general public would not have access to their shops.
While NBA spokesman Mike Bass called the security fence "one component of a large-scale safety and security plan" that includes ticketholders going through metal detectors as they arrive, Bass did not respond to reporter Sandra Pedicini's inquiries regarding "what types of problems the fence is designed to prevent or why metal-detector screening couldn't take place close to the arena."
