What's happening
This bill requires public reporting of state and local benefits for professional sports facilities and mandates affordable ticket agreements for events.
Why it matters
Increases transparency and public oversight. by requiring the Empire State Development Corporation to annually publish and update comprehensive reports detailing all forms of state and local public support (including subsidies, tax breaks, and payments in lieu of taxes) provided for professional sports facilities since 2011. This information must be easily accessible to both lawmakers and the public.
Broadens the definition of public benefit. to include not just direct funding but also indirect financial supports, making it harder for authorities to obscure the true extent of public investment in sports venues and holding them accountable for all types of economic incentives.
Mandates real affordability in ticket pricing. by requiring that at least 7% of all event tickets at publicly supported facilities be offered under “affordable ticket agreements,” specifically targeting households at or below 60% of area median income, and enforcing anti-resale provisions to prevent profiteering.
Limits ticket price inflation. at these venues by capping annual increases to 2% over a decade if prices have recently spiked, aiming to ensure long-term affordability and prevent public subsidies from leading to rapidly escalating costs for fans.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Make Sports Tickets Affordable
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
18 Co-sponsors
History
- Enacting clause stricken
- Referred to ways and means
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Make Sports Tickets Affordable
In Senate Committee · Corporations, Authorities And Commissions · Sponsor Brian Kavanagh
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
8559
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
July 10, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. KAVANAGH, DINOWITZ, JAFFEE, LIFTON, ORTIZ, PRET- LOW, ZEBROWSKI, COLTON, DenDEKKER, GLICK, HOOPER, LENTOL, PERRY, RIVERA, CAHILL, AUBRY, ROSENTHAL, COOK, GUNTHER -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. GALEF, GOTTFRIED, HEVESI, JENNE, LUPARDO, MAGEE, PEOPLES- STOKES, RAIA, RAMOS, THIELE, TITONE -- read once and referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
AN ACT to amend the public authorities law, in relation to enacting the "public benefits for professional facilities act"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "public benefits for professional facilities act".
§ 2. Article 9 of the public authorities law is amended by adding a new title 3-B to read as follows:
TITLE 3-B
PUBLIC BENEFITS FOR PROFESSIONAL FACILITIES Section 2860. Professional facilities.
§ 2860. Professional facilities. 1. No later than ninety days after the effective date of this subdivision, the Empire state development corporation shall publish on its website and provide to the legislature an accounting of all benefits that any state or local authority has granted or obligated itself to grant for the purpose of construction, reconstruction, repair or rehabilitation of a professional sports facility. Such accounting shall include all such benefits granted or obligated to be granted at any time on or after January first, two thousand eleven. Thereafter, the Empire state development corporation shall publish on its website and provide to the legislature an update of such accounting by February fifteenth of each year, covering the period ending December thirty-first of the preceding year. Any state or local authority that has granted or obligated itself to grant any such benefit shall report the terms of such benefit to the Empire state development
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01589-01-7
A. 8559 2
corporation no later than the earlier of the date the benefit is granted or the date the benefit is obligated to be granted.
2. For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(a) "Benefit" shall mean any direct or indirect grant of funds, tax reductions, tax preferences, subsidies, payments in lieu of any tax or tax obligation, or any other form of public support.
(b) "Affordable" shall mean within the economic ability of persons whose income is at or below sixty percent of the area median income for a four-person household to purchase tickets without economic hardship.
(c) "Affordable ticket agreement" shall mean a binding agreement among the state or local authority granting a benefit, the recipient of such benefit, and any other party necessary to give such agreement effect, the terms of which are publicly disclosed not less than thirty days before the state or local authority grants any benefit or undertakes any obligation to grant such benefit. Such agreement shall include provisions to prevent resale of tickets subject to the agreement at prices above face value.
3. Any state or local authority that grants any benefit, for the purpose of construction, reconstruction, repair or rehabilitation of a professional sports facility, shall, as a condition of such benefit, require that at least seven percent of all tickets for each event be subject to an affordable ticket agreement. Furthermore, such benefit shall be conditioned upon a facility policy that limits ticket price increases to no more than two percent annually for the next ten years, if at any time in the last three years season or individual tickets have been offered for sale with cumulative price increases of more than thirty percent.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.