Friday roundup: Nevada gov candidate threatens Raiders’ roads, Phoenix sued over Suns arena plans, Rays stadium could seek Trump tax break

And the rest of the week’s news:

• The Seattle Center says it should have its new arena plans finalized by September, in time for the NHL to approve an expansion franchise to play in it. Which, sure, that makes sense, but counting chickens is always a bad idea in the sports-expansion business — just ask Sacramento.
• A Republican candidate for Nevada governor says if elected, he’ll refuse to build any roads to the new Las Vegas Raiders stadium unless the team gives back its $750 million in subsidies, which isn’t going to happen but is still pretty brilliant and hilarious.
• F.C. Cincinnati isn’t gonna get its MLS expansion franchise until it has all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted on its community benefits plan. We could be here a while.
• A Phoenix real-estate developer has teamed with the libertarian Goldwater Institute to sue the city to force the release of its plans regarding renovations to the Suns arena after it denied a standard public-records request. It’s pretty standard for cities to deny such requests — I get Freedom of Information Law requests rejected for this reason all the time — but hey, more power to the lawyers if they want to see if a lawsuit works any better.
• Esports arena operators say that the future of sports is people sitting in esports arenas watching people play video games, and the New York Times suggests this could save America’s malls. In my experience, kids mostly want to watch this, and can, by just looking at their phones, but far be it from me to stand in the way of saving America’s malls.
• Headline in The Oregonian: “Major League Baseball to Portland leaders: ‘We have a window and we can’t let this go.'” Actual quote in the accompanying article: “That’s why you have Mike and Jason and I and our team so excited, moving so quickly but methodically. We have a window that we can’t let this go to Vegas or San Antonio or Mexico City or somewhere else.” By Craig Cheek, who has no role in MLB, but is just part of a group of owners who want to bring a major league baseball franchise to Portland. Maybe somebody should work on bringing a major league professional newspaper to Portland.
• This is sourced to the Daily Mail so is almost certainly wrong like everything that publication publishes, but: Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham F.C. owner Shahid Khan may not be able to buy Wembley Stadium for a while as planned, if it turns out a clause in the agreement to put public money into the stadium requires the Football Association to retain ownership of it through 2057.
• Here’s a list of places the Arizona Diamondbacks might consider trying to build a new stadium, which the Arizona Republic used as an excuse to re-run that old photo of a guy almost falling out of the current stadium’s upper deck and being caught by fellow fans.
• Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn wants the proposed Tampa Bay Rays stadium site to apply for federal tax breaks being offered by Donald Trump for private developments in low-income areas, because of course he does.
• And finally, Noah Pransky’s Shadow of the Stadium blog is shutting down after nine years, which is a shame not only because it’s a great read, but because we’re just now getting to the most important part of the Rays stadium battle, where it’s decided who lives and who dies where a stadium may be built and who’ll pay for it. Pransky will still be reporting on the Rays stadium battles for his day job at WTSP-TV, which means we should see more stuff like this. But still, it’s a sad day — thanks for nine years and 1,500 posts of great work, Noah!