Center for a NYC Future: Why not add $1 surcharge on venue tickets to help fund city parks? (That's a lot less than Ticketmaster fees.)

A recent report from the Center for an Urban Future, Paying for the Growing Needs of NYC’s Parks: 20 Fresh Ideas to Fund Parks and Open Spaces, offers some intriguing solutions "to pay for parks' growing maintenance and infrastructure needs, while investing in new parks and open spaces in the places they’re needed the most."

The report, by John Surico and Eli Dvorkin, notes that the Department of Parks and Recreation’s headcount has fallen 38 percent since the mid-1970s, while budget cuts enacted in 2020 led parks conditions to deteriorate to the worst levels in 20 years. The cost of major maintenance needs last year exceeded $58.9 million, with just 16 percent of those needs being met.

Now there's at least $685 million "in capital needs just to bring existing infrastructure up to a state of good repair, with just 30 percent of those needs either underway or planned over the next three years."

Beyond that, "more than 16 percent of New York City residents do not live within a quarter-mile walk of a small park or half-mile of a large park."

Why not tickets?

The top potential revenue stream: "a 50 cent or $1 surcharge on arena and stadium events to support parks maintenance." (This made the New York Times in January.) This wouldn't be new, as the report, excerpted below, explains; they already do it in Columbus.

After all, even a dollar would "amount to less than 1 percent of the average price of a concert ticket in 2023." Indeed, remaining tickets for next week's Zach Bryan show at Barclays start north of $200, while Nicki Minaj tickets start at $128.50, though Janet Jackson tickets in July start at $61.30, which includes an $11.35 service fee for each ticket. Then add a $6 processing fee, which dwarfs that $1 surcharge.

And venues like Barclays are thinking up new ways to appeal to high-rollers, planning new club seats.

After all, venues like Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, and Arthur Ashe Stadium are formally sited on parkland, which--I'd add--allowed for tax-exempt financing. 

While the Barclays Center is not sited on parkland, it is public property, again allowing for tax-exempt financing.

Recommendations

The recommendations include:

Create new, dedicated revenue streams for parks. Even as New York City generates more than $79 billion in revenue annually, there is currently no stream of revenue solely dedicated to parks. This report proposes several new mechanisms for generating revenue—including a small surcharge on all stadium and arena tickets, the creation of new fees on gas-powered landscaping and stormwater management, new programs to monetize organic waste including fallen trees, and a voluntary contribution from hotel guests...

Launch a modest expansion of restaurants, cafes, and other concessions in parks that enhance the visitor experience while generating funding for parks citywide. There are surprisingly few restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops, and other concessions in parks across the five boroughs...

Restaurants and cafes are also a fixture of many of the most adored parks in Paris, London, and numerous other cities... A modest expansion of these use—and creative new ones, like year-round spas in existing pool houses—could make New York’s parks even more appealing while providing much-needed revenues for parks. 

Establish an 80-20 split for all future revenue from new parks concessions. The larger share (80 percent) would remain with the park hosting the new concession and the remainder (20 percent) allocated to a fund to support parks with the greatest needs, in particular those in less affluent communities that may not otherwise be able to support revenue-generating concessions...

Develop new opportunities for individual New Yorkers and companies to support parks. The pandemic unleashed a powerful desire among New Yorkers to get involved with their local green spaces, but it’s often difficult for individuals and companies to contribute beyond occasional volunteer hours—especially in support of parks without existing conservancies or alliances....

Tap state funding for city parks to a greater extent than has been the case and take full advantage of the recently passed Environmental Bond Act. It’s not the city’s responsibility alone to address the ever-increasing needs of its parks and playgrounds. New York City accounts for roughly 40 percent of the state’s population, but too often fails to receive its fair share of funding from Albany for parks and open spaces...

Take full advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Taken together, these two recently enacted laws comprise the largest federal investment in urban green spaces in decades. City leaders should pull out all the stops to ensure New York City gets a significant piece of this multi-billion-dollar effort, and leverage city capital dollars to achieve the maximum benefit.

More on the surcharge

The full report puts at the top of the list "Attach a 50 cent or $1 surcharge on arena and stadium events to support parks maintenance."

The rationale:

ALMOST EVERY NIGHT IN NEW YORK CITY, THOUSANDS of fans attend events at venues sited on parkland: Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, Arthur Ashe Stadium, and more. Several casinos may arrive soon in the city, too, and several of the existing bids are for land designated for park usage. These venues have negotiated contracts with the city—for example, in FY 22, Citi Field paid $1.5 million dollars to NYC Parks in rental fees. Yet outside of those mostly trivial sums, NYC Parks sees no revenue from the millions of dollars in commercial activity each year generated on what is technically parks property.

It’s unlikely that these contractual fees are set to change anytime soon. But the city does have an opportunity to capture some additional revenue from the popularity of these venues, and others sited on public property. It can do so by attaching a small surcharge on all tickets sold to help fund parks maintenance and programming. This surcharge would be a very modest addition—perhaps as little as 50 cents or one dollar per ticket—to the total price tag of increasingly costly event tickets. But the impact could be significant.

Take Citi Field, for example. A 50-cent surcharge for a single sold-out event there would generate $20,900. Based on 2023 attendance figures, that surcharge would total $1.29 million annually from Mets home games alone. If that surcharge were upped to $1, each season would generate more than $2.5 million for parks—enough to hire more than 50 full-time gardeners. And that’s just one stadium and with a modest fee that would amount to less than 1 percent of the average price of a concert ticket in 2023.

“A sold-out show at [Madison Square] Garden probably has 18,000 tickets. Why not tell Ticketmaster to give $1 for every ticket sold to parks? You could brand it as a ‘Clean Air’ or ‘Parks Fund.’ At events hosted on parkland, it could be something small, like 25 or 50 cents. And something could be done where ticket holders under $50 wouldn’t have to pay,” says Lynn Bodnar Kelly, executive director of New York Restoration Project, a citywide environmental justice nonprofit that stewards parks and gardens in all five boroughs.

New York City wouldn’t be the first to do this. Columbus, Ohio, enacted a similar charge beginning in 2019 to seed two new funds designed to support its cultural and performing arts community, including the upkeep of aging cultural buildings. The first, dubbed the Creation, Innovation, and Inclusion Fund, is supported by a 5 percent fee on tickets to performances and sporting events at venues with over 400 seats and ticket prices over $10, with expected annual revenue of $6 million. The second, called the Facility Stabilization Fund, is generated specifically from the same 5 percent surcharge on tickets sold at Nationwide Arena, the city’s largest indoor venue, with an estimated $3 million in annual revenue. In 2022, annual revenue was on track to meet the predicted total of $6 to $9 million.