Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm Scott vor He is Lucy Chapman here as well.
But we've got a couple more guests in the studio,
and unlike our guest a moment ago, they were not
in any of the Avengers movies to my knowledge, but
the Jeff could have been. We'll talk about that here
in just a moment we have here. Jeff Week is
with us. Jeff worked with state Senator Brett Lenstrom on
(00:23):
writing a bill that would provide some tax incentives for
those businesses that wanted to do some entertainment stuff in Gretna,
which the people of Gretna said great. And then you've
got Craig Wolf here as well. The all starts here.
The cheer athletics programs throughout Omaha. That's Craig and his
(00:44):
wife that run those things. And you were part Craig
will start with you. You were part of this development
team to say, all right, we look around the landscape.
Whether it's cheer and dance, basketball, volleyball, these are indoor
sporting events. There's only so much space and on any
given weekend, whether it's in Council Bluff's or Bellevue or
(01:06):
Omaha's basketball volleyball cheer locations. There's so many kids out
with for this stuff. There's no space, there's no place
for anyone to park, and everyone hates it. Let's do
another one here and take advantage of some tax incentives
and Gretna. Am I kind of starting off on the
right path.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Y are Thanks Scott, first of all, thanks for having
us on the show to talk about this topic. Just
laying the groundwork for your listeners. Tomorrow's a big day
for kids and families across the state of Nebraska. Yes,
our project is in Gretna, but tomorrow is the day
that the Governor will hear applications on the Sports Arena
(01:45):
Facility Finance Act. And these projects go from Valentine to
West Point Elcorn to Gretna, Lincoln to Omaha, Norfolk. So
it's just not about Gretna. Across the state, we are
short of sports facilities for kids to play in. I
was in the corporate world for thirty years, came into
(02:08):
youth sports five years ago youth Development and was absolutely
shocked to see how far behind Nebraska is in sports
facilities in all sports compared to the states especially of Iowa, Kansas,
even South Dakota, and so the bill that brett Lin's
(02:28):
from passed in twenty twenty one and has been amended
a couple of times. Has is I think a great
opportunity for the state to take a step forward to
help kids and families. When you look at the industrial
vacancy rate, industrial buildings vacancy rate, it's two and a
half percent, and which basically says there's no industrial space.
(02:53):
But then when you take into consideration that you need
ceilings of twenty five feet to play volleyball, basketball, All Star,
competitive cheer, we're throwing twenty two to twenty four feet
in the air.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
You should come out.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Scott will throw you.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I think I'm the bottom of that pyramid, or you
can throw I'm the bottom of any pyramid that you create,
no matter what it is. I'm nowhere near that tip.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
As we own cheer athletics and AEF basketball. There's just
huge opportunity, and so we're excited for the governor to
hear these applications tomorrow. And you know, sure our project
is in Gretna.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, let me jump in here. I think I speak
for all parents when I say you could add a
dozen more of these facilities, they would all be jam
packed all the time, whether it's as I said, Council
Bluffs with the Iowa Westfield House or UBT. There's nothing
better than some West Omaha families driving out to Council
(03:51):
Bluffs at like eight o'clock on a Sunday morning to
play a game against another team from Elcorn. And you're thinking,
how dumb is this? But sometimes that's how it all
works out. You could add a lot more of these facilities.
I won't be surprised if we have to drive the
next one to Valentine to play another team from Omaha.
But I digress. The question is not whether we need
(04:12):
these facilities on any front. The question then becomes how
do you pay for it? Who pays for it? And
should there be a tax incentive for private business owners
to be able to do this? Now? Jeff Week is
also with us here, and Jeff, you worked with state
Center Brett Lenstrom to get a bill passed by the
Nebraska unicameral. It looked like all this was a done deal.
(04:33):
The governor is pushing back, what can you tell us
about this? Well, what's interesting is when we developed the bill,
it was called LB thirty nine and it created a
six hundred yard district around it sports complex, but it
was only new sales tax, so we can't claim existing
or even incremental. Some of the other sales tax turnbacks
(04:56):
that have come in Nebraska in a while have used
new but also incremental.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
We don't. We have to like basically, and I say
this Scott regularly, that we can only eat what we kill,
so we have to bring a development team with us
in order to collect any kind of sales tax. We
also don't get state sales tax one hundred percent. We
get seventy percent, So it's a share with the state.
(05:23):
So they we bring in new we get seventy percent
of that, the state gets thirty but the state still
gets lodging tax, it gets any of the economic impact
that we develop outside our district. Because each one of
these complexes will generate significant new visits to this particular district.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Then why is the governor suddenly I don't know if
he's fully opposed, but he certainly seems to have cooled
to the idea.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, and I think it has to do maybe with
a little bit of some misconceptions. Like number one, his
agenda has to do with lowering property tax the sports complex.
If it's done by a not for profit will not
pay property tax, but the development all around it will
(06:11):
usually pay The will pay property tax unless it's been tiffed,
and most of these projects are in areas the tift
does not apply, so it's a hard thing. Plus, he
keeps referencing four hundred and fifty one million dollars shortfall,
which I get it. I mean that's a point. But
on a twenty million dollar project, if sales tax paid
(06:34):
for the whole thing, we're talking about one million dollars
worth of sales tax that would be given to that project.
Because the bond or the lease agreement for each of
these projects is a twenty year deal. So take one
million off the four to fifty one shortfall and go,
why do you think there's a big impact on these projects?
(06:59):
If anything, it increases property tax base and new sales
tax that the state will get. Anyway, in most cases,
it's a net net zero impact financially. So if he votes,
know Scott, he's really voting against kids and families, which
I think those are his core beliefs.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
That's Jeff mj Consulting, that's Craig Wolf here as well,
cheer athletics. So it sounds like this is something that
the community needs that you, personally, Craig, would benefit from
putting this on there? Are you not going to do
it if not for some of the tax incentives that
Jeff is talking about here, because put yourself on me
(07:43):
ask this kind of gravy question to that meat, and
that is there are other business owners listening to this
going I built this. I built that. I didn't get
any tax incentives. I didn't get any any sales tax incentive.
I wasn't part of some district where I got some
sort of financing deal. I had to, you know, assume
all the risk and responsibility myself. So are you not
(08:04):
going to do this if this doesn't pan out? Very
fair question. Here's what happens. The cost of youth sports
today is out of control. What we cheer start cam in. Yeah,
I totally agree. Right, every single person or family that
has youth basketball is paying these ten to fifteen dollars
to watch your fourth grader play basketball. It's insane.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
It's cheaper to go to high school and watch high
school kids play and so but here's what's happening is
that facilities are so expensive. And then in our example
with AEF basketball or cheer. We have to pay coaches.
So between building expense and payroll, it's it's extreme, and
so we've got to cover that just to be in business.
(08:48):
So what's happening then is Jeff and I had a
zoom with the venture capitalist firm last summer that wanted
to come into Omaha, have us help them come into Omaha,
build the facility, and then to utilize all of our
contacts to play at their facility. And I simply asked
(09:10):
them a question. I said, so you're going to build
this facility, charge all the money, and then send it
back to East Coast for your investors. And that's what's
going to happen if we've got to control costs, and
the state I think has an opportunity to help families
cut costs, because what's more important than investing in our kids.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
There's so much going on right now near Highway three
seventy one hundred and ninety eight to two hundred street
out there. You got the high v that you can
see from space and everything else happening out out there.
This whole deal was passed by the legislator in twenty
twenty one. It seems like you started getting the ball
rolling on your development and everything else that would go
up around it a year ago. Have you already started
(09:51):
do you have financial skin in this game that now
suddenly might evaporate if this whole deal falls through. So
we own Tiffany and my wife owned thirty four acres
on two hundred and three seventy. The city of Gretna
saw the energy, excitement and all the values that All
Star Cheer bring to kids, and they came to me
(10:14):
and said, hey, look, this is incredible. We have to
have this in Gretna. Here's a piece of land that
we would love to have you build on, and we're
very excited about that. So over the last year since
we've purchased that, it's been about eighteen months now, we
have hotels, convention center commitments, retail restaurants. We've got a
(10:35):
waiting list for those organizations to build around Cheer athletics
and AEF just in one example, and this is going
to happen in all of them, but just our example.
And you know what they've all told Scott, if you
don't build, we're not coming. So then where's the economic development?
I mean, we were talking about five hundred to seven
(10:55):
hundred and fifty thousand non unique visits a year just
to that development, bringing people to Gretna, bringing in sales tax,
property tax. I think these projects actually will lower the
tax base for citizens across the state from Valentine, West Point, Norfolk, Lincoln,
Omaha and Gretna. Jeff, does the governor Does the governor
(11:16):
just get to veto this?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Then no, No, Here, Here's what the other thing I
want to make sure you understand you talk about Oh,
I don't understand any of this. Don't worry about that obviously,
but you are on the radio, so I appreciate that. Yeah.
The thing I would say is the co applicants. There's
applicants and co applicants a city or a county, or
there's in the law there's a number of applicants, but
(11:40):
only a not for profit corporation could be a co applicant,
so the benefit can only be derived from the city.
Let's say the City of Gretna and Wolfpeck Sports Foundation,
which Craig and Tiffany have set up, so that co
application they get the benefits. And the five member panel
(12:02):
hearings tomorrow is a temporary approval of the project based
on the statute. That's all it is, and what it
does is it allows this project and the other projects
in front of the Governor's panel to just get to
work and to see if they can get their project
(12:23):
to the finish line, because most of them, Scott will
also take a vote of the people in order for
the money to funnel from the political subdivision to the
not for profit. The AGE has given an opinion on
this bill and it basically says a vote of the
people is required if the co applicant is going to
use the state sales tax to build their project.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I think about some of the people you came up
with in the world of stand up comedy, Seinfeld, Gilbert Godfrey,
Larry the Cable Guy. None of them could say anything
you just said.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Maybe they could, but it would be funnier and me
right if I had more time. I want to get
stories and maybe next time you guys are in here,
just even funny. Well that's what Larry the Cable Guy said. No,
thank you very much, We just got a minute left here. So, Craig,
what is it you want KFAB listeners to do or know?
(13:19):
In advance of this hearing that Jeff is talking about
tomorrow so that the not just the people of Gretna,
but also the parents of all these kids and youth
sports athletics competition can have another option, which would be jobs,
which would be business, would be tax based with hotels
and restaurants and stuff in this growing, booming area of Gretna.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I think it's really important that the reason we asked
to come on your show is that we want to
educate the families of all of Nebraska to say, hey,
look there's an opportunity here to build sports facilities. I
have multiple conversations with families saying, look where we are
tired of traveling out of state, spending our dollars in
other state and city hotels and restaurants and shops. When
(14:03):
why don't we have any of that here. That's the
other thing. These sports facilities will draw outside of the
state visitors and bring in tourism dollars to eat in
our restaurants, to stay in our hotels. To again, it'll
bring sales tax in. And so we're working feverishly with
the state to make sure that number one, that we're
(14:27):
investing in kids through U sports, they learn accountability, commitment, teamwork,
and is there anything more important than that in investing
in our future. And some people will say, well, this
is just a money grab. It is not a money grab.
We are a nonprofit and it is time that Nebraska
gets into the arms rates for sports facility across the
(14:48):
entire state, not just in Greda.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Greg Wolf, Cheer Athletics, Jeff Week, MJ Consulting General. Thank you,
Thank you so much for a drop and no, thank
you so much for this very interesting conversation today. We
appreciate it and look forward to talking to you both again.
Thank you either on this program or once again on
Grow Omaha with Jeff and Trenton. You'll hear Cheer Athletics
(15:10):
and Christy Gilson on that program quite a bit here
on news Radio eleven ten Kfab Husker Buzz Extras
Speaker 1 (15:17):
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