KC community groups say Royals’ community benefits offer sucks, walk away from table … for now

So the coalition of Kansas City union, housing, and transit groups that had said if Royals owner John Sherman and didn’t agree to a community benefits agreement by Tuesday they’d tell people to vote against his stadium sales tax referendum declared Friday that his latest proposal was so unacceptable, they would be pulling out of joint talks with the team and county while continuing their own separate talks with team execs:

The announcement came just before the March 19 deadline set by the coalition for a CBA to be negotiated. Now, the coalition said it plans to continue negotiations with the Royals separately from the County.

“The window for negotiating a robust, powerful and transformative CBA with the Royals and the Chiefs is quickly closing,” said the Heartland Center and Missouri Workers Center in the letter. “Unfortunately, the responses we have received from the teams at the County Table largely ignore the community’s demands, fail to make meaningful progress on racial and economic justice, and assign value to the Teams’ own customary charitable works in an attempt to bloat the CBA’s value without actually providing the community the benefits sought.”

The gripe in particular is that Sherman was promising less in community benefits than he typically gives now to local charities, and the team would pick and choose where the money would go. Meanwhile, proposals from the coalition — such as that the team owners would replace any housing destroyed for stadium contruction with triple the number of units and provide housing affordable to people making 30% of the area’s annual median income — were rejected.

Walking away from the table — well, from one of two tables — is clearly an escalating ultimatum to Sherman (and Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, who is also part of the CBA talks) to agree to their terms or risk having them call publicly for a “no” vote. It was already looking like a bad weekend for Sherman after one of his main legislative supporters, Jackson County legislator Manny Abarca, accused County Executive Frank White of holding a grudge against his old team for how they had treated him as a coach and broadcaster and used the phrase “let’s call a spade a spade,” ohhhh, no you didn’t want to do that! After getting piled on by Xitter users and called out by White for using “overtly racist” language, Abarca wrote a followup post beginning, “Here’s a reality that I became aware of yesterday…” in which he apologized for “inadvertently making an insensitive comment,” while saying he had previously “only heard this phrase in association to the card game,” which is bizarre because while the phrase’s origin wasn’t initially racial, it also has nothing to do with the card game Spades, but whatever.

Will all this significantly influence the voting in the April 2 referendum? Who knows! But one of the consequences of early voting periods is that it’s nearly impossible to take polls on ballot measures like this — which is probably fine as polls are mostly garbage anyway, but it does mean lots of reporting in a vacuum about what it all means. Which maybe encourages more journalism about the actual meaning of events and not just horse race coverage trying to guess what voters will make of it all? That would be good? I’m not accustomed to things involving journalism improving, I need to sit and think on this one a bit.

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Friday roundup: Royals, Chiefs owners turn up heat before sales tax vote, VA gov tries to revive arena by insulting state senate again

Time to open up the ol’ Instapaper and see what this week’s leftover news items hold — seriously? Okay, better get started:

  • So much is going on in Kansas City in advance of Jackson County’s April 2 voting deadline for a referendum to extend the county 0.375% sales tax surcharge and give the resulting $500 million or so to the Royals and Chiefs for stadium upgrades that for the first time I’m having to break out a second level of bullets:
    • Chiefs president Mark Donovan went on TV and was asked if the teams would leave town if the tax hike is rejected, and replied, “for us the Chiefs; we would just have to look at all our options” and “I think they would have to include leaving Kansas City. But our goal here is, we want to stay here.” It’d be a shame if someone was to set fire to the football players, wouldn’t it, Luigi?
    • The two teams have doubled their campaign spending to $1 million each, with more presumably expected.
    • A coalition of low-income workers and residents of the Crossroads district where the Royals owner John Sherman wants to build a stadium with around $1 billion in public money says they’re giving Sherman until Tuesday to provide a community benefits agreement for the neighborhood or else they’ll advocate for a “no” vote.
    • And Chiefs mascot KC Wolf and Royals mascot Sluggerrr handed out “Vote Yes” stickers outside the city’s arena yesterday, and I had to dig through the Fox4KC video for photographic evidence but here it is:
  • Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s own internal analysis of the proposed Washington Capitals and Wizards arena deal for Alexandria finds that in order for it to raise enough money to generate the taxes needed to pay its construction costs, fans would have to pay $75 for parking, the arena would have to host 53 more events each year than the teams do now in D.C., and the project’s hotel would have to be able to charge $731 a night. Youngkin says he’s “working on” reviving the arena plan and that the problem is “the Senate didn’t do the work,” he really hasn’t learned his lesson about how to win friends and influence people, has he?
  • Three members of the St. Petersburg City Council remain opposed to Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg’s maybe–$1.5 billion stadium subsidy deal, and it would only take four to vote it down. The nearest anyone else is coming to opposing it is Gina Driscoll’s “undecided but optimistic,” though, so don’t hold your breath, but there’s at least a non-zero chance this thing might not sail through without more haggling.
  • Two weeks after Wisconsin assembly speaker Robin Vos pushed through $471 million in stadium renovation subsidies for the Milwaukee Brewers, five team executives each donated the maximum $1,000 to Vos’s reelection campaign. Probably just a coincidence, though, as they doubtless give money all the time to all sorts of — oh, this was their first donations to any candidate in the state ever? Well then.
  • Why don’t pro women’s teams get as much public subsidies as pro men’s teams? That’s the question being asked by Karen Leetzow, president of the Chicago Red Stars NWSL soccer team, which is owned by Laura Ricketts, who co-owns the Cubs with her brothers Tom, Pete, and Todd, something USA Today utterly fails to mention in its article.
  • The Seidman Research Institute at Arizona State University (which, despite its name, is actually a business consultant) reports that spring training games in Arizona generated more than $710 million for the local economy in 2023, enough to pay Shohei Ohtani’s entire 10-year contract, and this breaks so many rules about not comparing economic activity with actual tax receipts and not comparing present and future value that I almost can’t muster the energy to point out that previous studies show that the actual number is closer to zero.
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Preservationists, parks group, Illinois governor all throw shade on Bears’ lakefront stadium plan

So as discussed here earlier this week, the Chicago Bears owners have proposed spending $2 billion of their own money toward a $?? million stadium project just south of Soldier Field on the Chicago lakefront, with the rest of the money coming from ??. How’s that going over so far?

  • Landmarks Illinois, which previously listed Soldier Field on its Most Endangered Historic Places the last time it faced a massive reconstruction: “We would not approve of a plan that demolishes the few remaining pieces of the original Soldier Field.”
  • Friends of the Parks, which previously sued to block the development of a George Lucas museum on the lakefront under laws prohibiting development there: “We urge [the Bears to] find a way to stay home in a location that preserves our open, clear, and free lakefront.”
  • Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who previously said he was “really reluctant” to approve a White Sox stadium deal unless taxpayers could get a return on their investment: “That’s a good first step, but I haven’t heard a proposal that goes along with that $2 billion private investment that says that the state should be involved in anything. … Wealthy owners of sports teams – I respect that they run private businesses and they want them to be profitable, and they want constantly to provide better facilities for their customers. But I don’t think that should be the highest priority for the state of Illinois.”

That’s not a disaster yet for Bears management, but it’s certainly not the kind of groundswell they were hoping for when they announced plans to stay in city limits without telling Chicagoans how much it would cost them. In particular, having the governor somewhere short of lukewarm on helping to fund stadium plans could be a significant roadblock, given how vital governors have been in pushing other sports subsidy deals to completion before anyone can take too hard a look at them. There’s still an extremely long way to go for both the White Sox and Bears stadium proposals, but both teams’ owners are starting off at a relative disadvantage even before figuring out exactly what public money to demand, and that’s a recipe for, if not failure, at least more of an uphill battle than usual.

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Tennessee considers siphoning off another $320m in tax money for Grizzlies arena renovations

When we last checked in on the Memphis Grizzlies, owner Robert Pera had just gotten allocated $350 million in state money for renovations for their not-yet-20-year-old arena, to be shared with the Liberty Bowl, then immediately turned around and had the city’s new mayor (and Grizzlies season ticket holder) ask for more public money if Pera is going to extend his lease past 2029. And now, state legislators think they’ve found some more cash under the sofa cushions:

The bill, introduced by state Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, and state Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, would direct more revenue from the city and county hotel/motel tax to the Memphis Sports Authority if needed. The allocation would bridge any funding gap related to FedExForum renovations that are projected to cost at least $550 million.

After spending $120 million of its state cash on the Liberty Bowl, Memphis has $230 million left over to upgrade the Grizzlies’ arena. Akbari and Parkinson haven’t indicated exactly how much money would be siphoned off from the hotel/motel tax, but if it really would bridge “any funding gap” and the funding gap is currently $320 million, we can make an educated guess.

The hotel/motel tax money is currently designated for “tourism and tourism development,” though it’s mostly being used for paying off the arena’s initial construction costs, plus acting as a slush fund for things like expanding the city’s convention center; the state legislators behind the bill also didn’t indicate how they would backfill paying for anything the tax money would otherwise cover. Pera has reportedly been interested in redoing the arena’s seating to have more lower-bowl seats and fewer upper-bowl seats because he can charge more for lower-bowl ones — which at a $550 million cost may seem like an awfully expensive way to raise ticket prices, but if you can get the public to pay for the expense, all the rest is gravy.

As for why Tennessee should want to give the local billionaire $550 million so that he can increase his profits a bit, city councilmember Chase Carlisle warned in December that Pera had put the city “on notice that we need $550 million” or else “we have to start seriously considering our options.” (It must be so nice to be a billionaire and have elected officials to make your non-threat threats for you.) So far there’s been no hint of how much of a lease extension Pera might agree to in exchange for his demand for public funds, but given that he got the first $230 million in exchange for agreeing to absolutely nothing, it’s probably best not to get your hopes up.

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Royals stadium debates show some in favor, some opposed, because that’s how debates work

Early voting is going on now in the April 2 referendum on Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman’s proposed 0.375% sales tax surcharge to raise $500 million or so , half of which would go to Chiefs renovation and half toward a $1 billion or so public subsidy for a new downtown Royals stadium — (deep breath) — and there were two separate informational sessions yesterday for locals to learn about and debate the plan.

One, a hearing called by county legislature chair Jeanie Lauer and vice chair Megan Marshall, drew a packed house for public comment, though Lauer and Marshall laid out strict ground rules in advance, instructing, according to KCTV5, that “comments should focus specifically on concerns or benefits to the selected site, not on the taxing mechanism to fund the project.” That’s a pretty severe limit, and according to the TV station, the comments mostly came from:

  • Business owners in the Crossroads neighborhood that would be displaced to make way for the stadium, who were “nearly all opposed to the project,” including one distillery owner who testified, “I will not support my own displacement from a team that sells its best players to the Yankees.”
  • Members of contruction unions, who said, well, you can guess: “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to influence the economic prosperity for this region for years to come.”

Over at the other event, former Kansas City councilmember Becky Nace — now chair of the Committee Against New Royals Stadium Taxes — and former Kansas City mayor Sly James — now an advisor to the Committee to Keep the Chiefs and Royals in Jackson County — debated every aspect of the Royals plan, including the taxing mechanism to fund it:

  • “This is not simply public money going into this,” said James. “This is the largest public-private partnership in the history of the city and the county.”
  • “We’ve supported these teams, and to threaten to leave if we don’t meet their demands is not appreciated by fans,” countered Nace. Furthermore, she added, it might not be easy for the Royals and Chiefs to just pick up and move: “Maybe they are bluffing, but maybe they aren’t, but it would cost them money they have to rebrand and move the team.”
  • “It may not be easy, but it sure does seem to happen a lot over stadium issues,” retorted James.

Does it, though? Aside from the flurry of NFL teams that switched cities in the wake of St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke breaking the seal on putting an NFL team in Los Angeles in 2016, the most recent sports relocations have been:

  • The Montreal Expos becoming the Washington Nationals in 2005, which was only partly about stadium concerns and partly over concerns about Montreal as a good MLB market, though the league certainly took advantage of the situation to extract a sweetheart stadium deal in D.C.
  • The Seattle Supersonics becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008, which came after a failed arena push in Seattle but also after the team was sold to an Oklahoma business leader.
  • The Atlanta Thrashers becoming the new Winnipeg Jets in 2011, which didn’t involve a newer arena unless you count moving from one built in 1999 to one built in 2004.

And that’s it for the last 20 years. It does seem to happen, yes, but not really “a lot,” and the number of teams that threaten to move and then never do it is much, much longer.

James also addressed the issue of displaced businesses, saying, “If it requires people be moved, we will help them move. If it requires people to lose profits, we will help them with that. If it requires people get out of their leases, we will help them with that.” Nace, meanwhile, pointed to the unknowns about what public money Sherman will ask for if he gets the sales tax approved, saying, “”You don’t know what you’re voting for and what the consequences will be. It does come at a risk, and it does come at a cost; this cost is too steep.”

Probably none of that quite justifies the headline that KSHB slapped on its accounting of the event — “South Kansas City residents get April 2 stadium sales tax vote questions answered” — but at least it put some cards on the table. What would be nice to see would be some polls indicating how Jackson County residents are leaning on the sales tax ballot proposal, but with voting already underway we’re not going to get that. Instead, everyone set your clocks for the evening of April 2, when we — and John Sherman — will finally get to see if the Royals’ stadium plan moves forward with its first quarter-billion-dollar public down payment, or gets stopped in its tracks.
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Chicago Bears owners have plan to build a $2B something somewhere

The Chicago Bears rumors started early this morning:

The Bears are shifting their focus to remain in the City of Chicago with plans to build a new stadium south of Soldier Field, a source familiar with the team’s plan told ESPN.

Hadn’t we heard that already? I’m pretty sure we heard that already … yep, last week. Wake me when there’s an actual announcement. Oh, what’s that you say?

The Chicago Bears are prepared to provide $2 billion in private funding for a new publicly owned enclosed stadium and park space in the city, the team confirmed Monday. … As proposed, the new stadium would be in the area of Waldron Drive, just south of the Bears’ current home at Soldier Field.

That’s slightly confusing: The Bears owners would spend $2 billion, but the stadium would be publicly owned? So it wouldn’t pay property taxes, presumably, but would the team pay any rent for the city land? And how much would the total cost be, and would the city and/or state be asked to chip in? Let’s go look at the actual full team statement:

“The Chicago Bears are committed to contributing over $2 billion to build a stadium and improve open spaces for all families, fans and the general public to enjoy in the City of Chicago. The future stadium of the Chicago Bears will bring a transformative opportunity to our region—boosting the economy, creating jobs, facilitating mega events and generating millions in tax revenue. We look forward to sharing more information when our plans are finalized.”

That doesn’t actually say anything at all about a lakefront site just south of Soldier Field, though that would certainly qualify as “in the City of Chicago.” And in addition to providing no real financial details other than that the Bears would put up $2 billion out of something for something, it doesn’t explain how an NFL-size stadium would fit on the very narrow site south of the existing stadium — especially if the team would “maintain parking in the south lot,” as ESPN reported but the team statement also didn’t say.

It’s all a very weird kind of non-announcement, though certainly on brand for sports team execs who want to get people all excited about the fun parts (Bears staying in Chicago! More open space!) before getting into the messy details about money or space constraints. One hopes some more details will be released soon, but that “sharing more information when our plans are finalized” isn’t exactly promising. Looks like John Fisher isn’t the only one who likes starting out with word renderings.

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How dead is the Alexandria Caps/Wizards arena? An investimagation

The Virginia legislature adjourned on Saturday without taking action on a bill to spend $1 billion(ish) on a development project in Alexandria that would include a new arena for the Washington Wizards and Capitals. But does that mean the arena is dead, or just mostly dead? Let’s assemble the evidence:

  • Gov. Glenn Youngkin could either propose a budget amendment that the legislature could consider when it reconvenes on April 17 — apparently Virginia has a cockamamie legislature that doesn’t actually adjourn when it adjourns — or call a special session in hopes of using the extra time to do what Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo did for the Oakland A’s last summer. Could that happen, state Sen. Mamie Locke? “We’ll see. Anything can happen.”
  • State Sen. Louise Lucas, who singlehandedly blocked the arena bill from getting a committee hearing it needed to move forward, rejected a personal appeal from Caps and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis last Wednesday, telling Leonsis he had done a lousy job providing financial details and selling the project to legislators, complaining that he “treated me as if I was invisible” from when the project was first announced in December to this past week, when he finally invited her to coffee.
  • If Youngkin wants to revive the plan, he would need to win over Democratic legislators like Lucas, and so far he’s not off to a great start, vetoing or sending back for changes 20 out of 84 bills that the legislature sent him, and complaining that the legislature sent him “backward budgets that need a lot of work.” Democratic Del. Mark Sickles, who supports the arena plan, told WJLA-TV that the governor has “some work to do. They’re not used to doing this. This is their third year, and they really haven’t developed many relationships, meaningful relationships, over here until now. … When the governor goes out and says, ‘Democrats don’t think the United States is exceptional and we don’t want to be the strongest country in the world,’ that doesn’t help because we disagree with that. He just endorsed Donald Trump.”
  • Richmond Times-Dispatch politics columnist Jeff Schapiro writes: “What Youngkin may not appreciate — and this is yet another reminder that, as a government newbie, he is alternately confused by, or contemptuous of, how Richmond works — that senators have little fear of him. That’s because their terms extend beyond his; that they’ll still be here after he’s gone in January 2026.”
  • Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson recently drew attention after it was revealed that he had sent a text detailing that his plan to pay for the city’s share of the development was to “tax the crap out of” its users. That doesn’t even appear to be true — there’s no provision for a tax surcharge on the arena development, while there are about $380 million in local property tax breaks — but “tax the crap out of” is never a phrase you want appearing in the paper next to your name.

So to recap: Gov. Youngkin could still try to haggle his way to getting an arena bill approved, but right now the whole legislature is mad at him and the state senator he needs to win over is really mad at him, and Youngkin is signaling that he’s going to make them even madder by vetoing a bunch of the bills they just sent him. Plus, the legislature can always just wait him out, since he’s term-limited out at the end of next year. There have been plenty of miracle comebacks in sports subsidy deals, and I would never rule out the ability of politicians to horse-trade, but it seems it’s getting awfully close to time to go through the arena bill’s clothes and look for loose change.

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Friday roundup: NYCFC unveils images of Naming Rights Sponsor Stadium, A’s reveal plans to blow a/c at fans’ feet

And so we have reached the end of another programming week, one mercifully without Jerry Reinsdorf’s stadium subsidy demands going up yet again. That’s just about the only thing that didn’t happen this week, though, so let’s hit the news recap:

  • NYC F.C.‘s $780 million soccer stadium plan cleared another hurdle this week, getting the okay of the City Planning Commission, the last stop before a final city council vote. It also got some fresh renderings depicting how fans would enter the stadium through a giant cube-shaped entryway (dubbed The Cube, this team has a way with words) that would be covered in a giant video board that display the names of all five New York boroughs, in case you forget where you live. (The stadium is depicted bearing the name Naming Rights Sponsor Stadium, while the entryway in one image says “New York City FC” while in another it’s “Cube Entrance Sponsor,” pick a lane, guys.) Still up in the air: how the affordable housing component would work, where fans will park if Mets owner Steve Cohen refuses to let the soccer team use his parking lots across the street unless he gets a state casino license, and, oh yeah, how the whole thing would be paid for, someone should really look into that.
  • The Oakland A’s “spherical armadillo” stadium in Las Vegas would have “the highest number of suites, clubs and other high-end seating products” relative to size of any MLB stadium, according to Venues Now, which spoke to A’s president Dave Kaval on the subject. In addition to hardly any affordable tickets, Kaval promised that the air-conditioning would blow out from under people’s seats, something that’s used at the Sacramento Kings arena and in some Middle East soccer stadiums, and which the site reported Kaval said he’s “working with Henderson Engineers to find a way to make it work in MLB.” Also a work in progress: The A’s are playing an exhibition game in Las Vegas tonight, and plenty of good seats are still available.
  • The Virginia legislature has officially passed a budget without money for an Alexandria arena for the Washington Wizards and Capitals, though Gov. Glenn Youngkin could still try for an amendment or a special session. State senate finance chair Louise Lucas, who has the power to kill budget bills by denying them hearings in her committee, doesn’t seem real amenable to that, though. One Alexandria restaurant owner tells D.C. News Now that he’s upset not because he wants arena traffic for his businesses, but because spending over $1 billion in public money on an arena would “alleviate some of the tax burden from the residents,” somebody’s been reading too many clown documents!
  • Two members of the Jackson County legislature will be holding a public hearing this Monday at 3 pm on the Kansas City Royals‘ $2 billion stadium plan and $1 billion public subsidy plan. While attendance at these things is never representative of the public as a whole — it’s almost guaranteed there will be a throng of construction workers bussed in to cheer the project on, for example — it will at least give us some hint of the public mood as we approach the April 2 deadline for voting on the 0.375% sales-tax surcharge extension that would fund the first chunk of the project. (The Kansas City Star editorial board is a no, at least until Royals owner John Sherman explains more about how the money, lease, and provisions for relocating businesses would work.)
  • The Chicago Bears owners are reportedly “close to” announcing a lakefront stadium in Chicago and are also still haggling with suburban cities over property tax breaks for a stadium there, never take seriously rumors that are spread by team execs themselves, just don’t.
  • Maricopa County and the city of Phoenix are considering a “partnership” to address the Arizona Diamondbacks owners’ stadium demands, which would … do something? Also this was just a letter that the county sent to the city council last August, and the council never replied, guess the Arizona Republic was having a real slow news day.
  • Would a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium increase the team’s attendance? Yes at first, then no after the honeymoon wears off in a few years. This report is not remotely new news, but it comes with lots of stats and charts! Guess the Tampa Bay Times opinion section was having a slow news day.
  • Sure, New York taxpayers are spending over $1 billion on a new Buffalo Bills stadium, but who can put a price on 16-foot-tall bison statues? ESPN reports that “there was some disappointment on social media among fans” that the statues aren’t bigger, since the “World’s Largest Buffalo Monument” in North Dakota is 26 feet tall, that does it, time to tear down the new stadium and build one with state-of-the-art bison.
  • New Mexico United‘s new stadium “costs the city nothing,” according to team president Ron Patel; KOAT-TV checked, and it’s actually nearly $29 million in public money, about half the total cost. Never take seriously cost estimates that are put forward by team execs, just don’t.
  • The Hawaii legislature is set to consider a bill to scrap a $350 million plan to rebuild Aloha Stadium so that the money can be used for wildfire recovery and housing instead. Rep. Gene Ward said he opposes the bill because “it’s not going to get anybody to come to the football games, regardless of how bad you are as a football player,” no, I don’t know what he meant by that either.
  • Finally, back on the A’s front, I was on this week’s Rickeyblog podcast, where we talked about all aspects of the team’s stadium situation, not least why fans in the Vegas stadium renderings are waving the flag of Gaddafi’s Libya and what that could mean for tourism. Give it a listen, you’ve got all weekend!
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Behold the spherical armadillo: A’s Vegas dream stadium has ginormous windows, scoreboard, funding gap

Three months after they were originally supposed to be releasedOakland A’s Las Vegas stadium renderings finally dropped yesterday. [UPDATE: This was apparently a day earlier than planned, because A’s execs initially forgot to tell reporters the images were supposed to be embargoed.] Are they as batshit as last week’s “verbal renderings” made them sound? Do they raise even more questions about the financial wherewithal and/or sanity of A’s owner John Fisher? Are they ever, and do they ever!

Initial thoughts:

  • The “five overlapping layers” “inspired by traditional baseball pennants” turn out to look more like someone picked up the Sydney opera house and dropped it on a baseball stadium. It’s definitely visually striking — how it would work in terms of engineering, how much it would cost to construct, and how it would fit on a teeny nine-acre site are all excellent questions.
  • The “largest video board in MLB” will be attached to the curve of the (fabric?) roof somehow, and will be impossible to read for anyone sitting down the first-base line. Also despite the stadium not opening until 2028, a 40-year-old Mike Moustakas will still be playing third base for the Los Angeles Angels, and the A’s lineup will likewise involve all players who are currently on the team, which would be remarkable but maybe not more remarkable than Shea Langeliers batting .285.
  • “The tiered design will split upper and lower seating bowls to bring fans closer to the action than traditional ballparks and provide clear sight lines from every seat,” according to MLB.com’s writeup, and yes, every baseball stadium for at least the last century has featured a “tiered design” and no, there’s no way that “brings fans closer to the action” unless the upper decks are cantilevered over the lower ones, and that doesn’t appear to be the case here.
  • As Noah Pransky notes, there’s no a/c ductwork to be seen, which would make the stadium a little on the toasty side.
  • The whole mess looks like “a spherical armadillo” according to stadium critic … oh, whoops, that’s what designer Bjarke Ingels said himself, apparently meaning it in a good way. Twitter took it differently.
  • Fisher gave an interview to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser that will be remembered for his quote that “the armadillo is an underrated animal,” but is mostly notable for his admission that even after putting in $500 million of his own money and borrowing another $200 million, he’s still missing $500 million that he expects to come from unidentified “equity investors” in … the team? The stadium? The roof? Slusser apparently didn’t ask, nor did she ask if a $1.5 billion price tag for this madness is really realistic.

All of this is very on brand for Ingels, whose firm’s style is more architectural shock and awe than fireworks and people flinging their hands in the air for no reason. (Though it is worth noting that future A’s fans seem to have taken to bringing blank green flags to the ballpark, possibly because they’re all diehard supporters of Gaddafi’s Libya.) It does make me wish for some renderings that break new ground in terms of not only physics-defying engineering but reality-defining clip art — couldn’t we at least have one completely nonsensical scene, like, I dunno, horses running wild in the parking lot?

Ahh, now that’s what I’m talking about! That small child will always remember the day her parents first took her gambling, not least because of the hoof-shaped indentation her head will feature the rest of her life. Every great image tells a story, and I’ll take that one any day over “John Fisher captured a space armadillo and forced it to serve as his stadium roof until Jean-Luc Picard figured it out and forced him to release it.”

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White Sox, Bears working on united front for stadium demands, this usually doesn’t end well

Last week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state senate president Don Harmon both told the Chicago White Sox and Bears owners they should get together to plan a joint stadium deal, after news that the two teams would be targeting the same hotel tax money to help pay construction costs. This week, developer Related Midwest says it is working on getting the two teams to form just such a united front:

“We’re working with them … to have a financing partnership that makes sense for us and for them and for the city and the state,” President of Related Midwest Curt Bailey told the [Chicago] Sun-Times.

While only having to manage one piece of proposed subsidy legislation would certainly make things easier logistically for Illinois officials, it’s hard to see how it’s in the public’s advantage to have the people on the other side of the bargaining table collaborating against you instead of competing with each other. Certainly in other cities where teams have teamed up — the New York Yankees and Mets come to mind, and more recently the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles — it’s been more a case of whichever team seems better positioned politically taking the lead, while the other is content to sit back and say, “We’ll have what they’re having.” And the resulting subsidies, in such cases, can be record-breaking.

So far, Pritzker has made noises about wanting to ensure that state taxpayers would get a return on any public stadium spending, but it’s impossible to say whether he means real ROI or just clown job projections.

In the midst of all this, the Chicago Reader interviewed Sean Dinces, author of the book Bulls Market, which is about the city’s NBA team’s profiteering juggernaut, and he had a relevant tidbit to share about the last time owner Jerry Reinsdorf extracted stadium money for the White Sox:

I remember reading [Commissioner of Economic Development Robert] Mier and [Mayor Harold] Washington’s memos about the White Sox stadium in the Chicago History Museum’s archives. They viewed the situation as we have to do this because we’re expending so much political capital on other reform initiatives that we can shoot ourselves in the foot by being the administration that lost the White Sox. I don’t think the Washington administration was under the illusion that the White Sox stadium was going to be a major economic development for the city; they were clear-eyed that it was largely theater.

Saying “We’re not going to come out ahead in this deal, we’re just doing it to keep the team from moving” is a certain kind of clear-eyed, certainly — though given that Reinsdorf later admitted that his move threats were fake, maybe it’s better described as a certain kind of being under an illusion. And Dinces himself suggests that Chicagoans could do worse than to urge Mayor Brandon Johnson to hold a strong line and tell the team owners if they don’t like it they can go pound sand:

Honestly, I don’t think that people are realistic when they catastrophize over calling the team’s bluff. The chances are overwhelming that the team’s not going to go anywhere. Usually, this is just a bluff to see how much you can take advantage of gullible politicians and the public.

So far, calling team owners’ bluffs doesn’t seem to be how Johnson is thinking, if his asking White Sox management to collaborate on press statements around their stadium proposal is any indication. So far we’re very much in the initial jockeying stage of the White Sox and Bears’ stadium demands, but the tea leaves do not say promising things about how it’s likely to turn out for Illinois taxpayers.

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Field of Schemes