According to a recent survey in Forbes, the Washington Redskins are the second most valuable NFL franchise with an estimated market value of $1.5 billion and annual revenues topping $300 million. Although the team is identified as “Washington,” there is little actual connection to the imperial capitol. The team’s stadium is in Landover, Maryland, and its offices and training complex are located in Loudon County, Virginia. If you weren’t aware of the Loudon County presence, fear not, because the county’s taxpayers just agreed to spend $250,000 to tell everyone about the Redskins’ “corporate home”.Yesterday, a divided Loudon County Board of Supervisors approved a “two-year marketing partnership” with the Redskins. Like any good partnership, Loudon provides tax dollars while the Redskins provide services of questionable value. Among the highlights:
- Loudoun County is authorized to use the Redskins logo on County marketing materials and website, positioning Loudoun County as the “Corporate Home of the Redskins.”
- Mention of Loudoun County included in all team controlled Media and On-Air Datelines…
- Four banner ads and one feature story (such as a profile of a player who lives in Loudoun County) on e-mail blasts to more than 200,000 subscribers…
- Redskins Park identified as being located in Loudoun County in all Redskins marketing materials and press releases.
- The right to distribute materials at Training Camp at Redskins Park. Also, the team will refer to the training camp as “Redskins Training Camp in Loudoun County, VA”.
- The county has the right to host an annual event at Redskins Park, with up to 200 attendees, including tours and the right to use team meeting spaces. A Redskins Executive will be made available to speak at the event.
- Participation in Redskins-hosted networking events, which include decision-makers from some of the largest corporations in the region.
Now, as I read this, the Redskins are basically promising (1) to tell the truth about where they’re located, (2) to repeatedly spam their mailing list, and (3) to help county officials network with corporations that already do business in the area. All for the bargain price of $250,000.
And where is that quarter-million coming from? From the county’s existing “transient occupancy tax” – otherwise known as a 5% tax on hotel rooms. Ironically, the whole point of this partnership is to encourage more tourism. According to the Loudon Convention and Visitors Association, which backed the Redskins deal:
Success [of the partnership] would be recognition of Loudoun County as a place for visitors, meetings and conventions, as well as the embracement of DC’s Wine Country, Loudoun County, VA. This is a long term process and will not be accomplished solely through this partnership. Tactics will be measured to include impressions, and response to specific messages however, the long term branding measurement will require surveys and research to evaluate. The benefits from the partnerships should not be underestimated – all the parties involved bring value to the partnerships and in two years ideally we will be discussing how to take the relationship to a new level and explore new, expansive opportunities.
So paying the Redskins will encourage people to visit Loudon’s wineries? Talk about your mixed message. And it apparently never occurred to Loudon officials that a better way to encourage tourism and visitors would be to, say, eliminate your 5% hotel tax.
Note the LCVA emphasized how the ideal scenario would be to expand the Redskins partnership in the future, no doubt meaning more hotel taxes to pay for more Redskins marketing. Along those lines, the Loudon supervisors also voted to consider a potential “Redskins Hall of Fame” to be built in the county. This for a team that has posted an on-field record of 78-87 under the current ownership.
Obviously, $250,000 is nothing in the grand scheme of state intervention. But it’s a symptom of how deep statism runs when a company that makes over $300 million per year can’t resist taking .08% of that sum from a small county government – and when five of the County’s eight elected supervisors can’t resist the urge to give it away.
As a postscript, I would note that at the same meeting approving the Redskins deal, Loudon supervisors, by a 5-4 vote, refused permission to allow construction of a second hospital in the county. Apparently, the majority did not want to offend the county’s only existing hospital operator.
{ 1 comment }
As a resident, I can tell you from personal experience that Loudoun County is a poster child for statism.
Unfortunately, the irony of taxing hotel stays to promote tourism is state code, not county. TOT (as they call it here) tax money can only be used to promote tourism in the county. Albeit that’s not stopping the Board of Supervisors from currently trying to find a way to use the money to fund staff positions in the county government.
If you enjoy getting a little miffed from Loudoun County’s antics though, you should really look up some of the huge, zoning disputes that are constantly arising, and the secession effort of the west end of the county trying to break away from the east.
My favorite is when they turned away Disney from building a theme park here, now that would have helped tourism!
Comments on this entry are closed.