Check out this scheme...

[WCGreen]

The Cleveland Indians are making a big deal about their charitable donations. They claim that the "club" donated almost $ 1.3 million last year to local charities such as the one set up to pay the sky rocketing costs of a girl who hopes to one day be a championship figure skater (why that qualifies as a charity to anyone but the family of the potential figure skater is beyond me, but that is not the point of this particular rant...)

Here is how this particular phony philanthropy actually works; folks from Cleveland area charities agree to work the concession stands for free at the ball park in exchange for a cut of the take. The charities take in between 8-10% of an items retail cost. For instance, forty cents of every four dollar hot dog (really luke warm dog) goes to charity. Sounds like a magnanimous gesture on the part of the Cleveland Indians, now doesn't it? Everybody wins.

But before we go and erect statues to the corporate people running the Cleveland Indians, let's take a look at what is really going on here. The bottom line is that the Cleveland Indians do not have to pay for labor costs in some 60 concession booths in the publicly financed Jacobs Field, which, by the way, was touted as a community investment in order to get the backing of politicians and civic leaders. There are no employees in these charity run booths. In case you forgot or didn't know, these "leaders" promised that the public "investment" in the ball park would create hundreds of entry level jobs for economically disadvantaged Clevelanders.

On the surface, the Indians are big winner. Since labor costs run about 15% of the costs in these booths after you add Social Security matching, State and Federal Unemployment and Workers Comp costs to the wages paid. With all that considered, the Cleveland Indians are able to squeeze out an extra 5-7% profit they didn't have before. The "Tribe", as they like to be called (sounds inclusive now, doesn't it) also get the great PR of appearing to be giving something back to the community not to mention the big fat tax deduction.

The big losers here are the low income people who typically man these booths in order to make ends meet. And don't forget that the city is out the income tax that would have been generated had employees been hired to do the work now being done by Volunteers. It doesn't sound like much but it adds up to somewhere between $50-100k dollars of missed revenues for the cash strapped city. Those missed funds could have paid for an extra cop or fireman. More than likely, it would just about cover the cost of overtime for the cops needed to patrol the area around Jacobs Field before, during and after a game.

Guess what. The people who own the Cleveland Indians are moguls, high rollers in the Cable TV industry. This particular branch of the Dolan family kicked in about $40k to finance the republican party just in 2006 alone. Curiously, that's about what the city of Cleveland is missing in lost revenues...

America, what a country...