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When you buy a ticket to the circus, you are paying a facility fee. A facility fee is added to the cost of tickets for most events at the city's sports facilities. The facility fee has become an issue in the debate over the future of the sin-tax.

((Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer))

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Facility fees added to the cost of tickets for concerts and other events are a lot like so-called shipping-and-handling charges.

We don't like them – yet we pay them anyway.

But what do we really know about facility fees? You might be surprised by how the fees work.

Facility fees have been in the news lately, thanks to the grassroots group campaigning against renewing the Cuyahoga County tax on the sales of alcohol and cigarettes. The group, the Coalition Against the Sin Tax, has proposed adding a new facility fee to ticket prices to pay for repairs and upgrades to our publicly-owned sports facilities: Progressive Field, Quicken Loans Arena and FirstEnergy Stadium.

The coalition argues a new facility fee of $3.25 per ticket is more fair than continuing to tax smokers and drinkers, many of whom never step foot in our sports facilities. (You can read the coalition's proposal in the box below.)

Keep Cleveland Strong, the pro-sin tax group of politicians, business leaders and unions is adamantly opposed to a new facility fee, also known as a user fee.

It certainly doesn't want to draw too much attention to the $3 facility fee we already pay to attend events at The Q, such as Disney on Ice or the Monster Jam truck show. (The fee also applies to concerts and events at FirstEnergy Stadium and Progressive Field, though these facilities host far fewer non-sports events.)



Keep Cleveland Strong argues no matter how attractive the next Demi Lovato show may be, people will not pay another facility fee to see her. Furthermore, it believes any new fee on tickets will drive away event promoters.

This debate got me thinking about the existing facility fee.

Where does that money go?

Who sets the price?

Why do we have to pay a facility fee on a facility we are already paying for?

Is there a facility fee attached to tickets to our professional sporting events?

Don't team owners already cover expenses related to their facilities?

I put these questions and others to Keep Cleveland Strong, which represents the teams in the campaign to pass the sin-tax extension, which appears as Issue 7 on the May ballot. (Early voting is already underway.)

Here's a summary of the coalition's responses.

A $3 facility fee is added to all non pro-team events, such as concerts and the circus. The fee is on par with other facility fees around the country. The fee is levied to help offset the costs of utilities, security, materials and maintenance tied to a concert, circus, truck show or any one-time event. Though some events are cheaper to host than others, the fee does not cover the entire cost of hosting.

In Keep Cleveland Strong's view, the fee is a "long standing industry norm" to help cover "specific operating costs incurred by the venue."

The money raised by the fee goes to the entity that manages the venue. That means the Cavs get the money for any event held at The Q. (I asked for the total amount of facility fees collected by the Cavs in 2013 but was told that figure was not readily available.)

The current facility fee is printed either on the ticket stub or appears on the checkout page during online buying.

Things are different when you attend a Cavs (Monsters and Gladiators), Browns or Indians game. You don't see a $3 facility fee on your ticket. You also don't pay it – at least not directly.

The Cavs, Browns and Indians operate the facilities they play in. So, their respective leases spell out their financial obligations for each facility, including maintenance, utilities, upkeep and other overhead. The teams build these costs into the price of game tickets, their chief source of revenue.

In other words, the teams do not charge a separate facility fee, but the costs of running the facilities influence ticket prices.

The anti-sin-tax group's proposal would be a good idea if we weren't already trapped by current facility fees – which unfortunately are embedded in concert and special event economics -- and by Cleveland's absurdly high 8 percent admission tax.

Cleveland's admission tax must be part of the facility-fee debate. It is levied on every event and is the highest among competing markets, including Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville and Detroit. Admissions tax revenues flow entirely into the city's general revenue fund, which also pays debt service on FirstEnergy Stadium. This tax puts any venue competing for shows and patrons at a disadvantage. Adding another tax makes any event less attractive.

Sure, there are plenty of loafer-wearing sports fans who can afford a new facility fee. (You know the ones -- the dudes who blow money on strip clubs after a game or don't blink at $20 parking.)

But not all users have the same size wallet. In fact, the circus and other family events draw an economically diverse crowd to The Q. And many of these events are already barely worth the price, unless you consider hauling your kid to the bathroom or concessions stand three times an hour to be a good value.

In the end, Keep Cleveland Strong wants us to believe the world of entertainment in Cleveland will end if a new facility fee is added.

It won't.

But a new facility fee will stress the very folks the anti-sin-tax coalition claims it is trying to protect – the working class and even less fortunate. In reality, they spend their money on sporting events and concerts, too.

So, before we add a new facility fee, we must first figure out how to lower other fees associated with the shipping and handling of our tickets.