Category Archives: media appearances

This week in boondoggle vivisection: audio edition!

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Thanks to my recent Deadspin article on how Seattle may be showing the way to negotiating better sports deals (something Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat agrees with me on, for what it’s worth), as well as all the other stadium and arena news that’s suddenly been exploding, I’ve been on the radio — or podcasts, which I’m going to persist in calling “radio” even if actual radio waves aren’t involved, because who listens to the radio on the radio anymore anyway? — a lot the last week or so. Handy links for those who’d rather get their stadium commentary via their earholes:

Today in peeing-on-NFL-owners’-graves news, St. Louis Rams edition

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Nothing much new today on the NFL-to-L.A. front except for everyone on the planet continuing to completely freak out about it, but I did want to take note of two links worth following:

  • Will Leitch, last man standing at my old employer Sports on Earth, has penned a great piece comparing St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s scorched-earth approach to getting out of that town to former Browns owner Art Modell’s self-reinvention as the most hated man in Cleveland for moving the team to Baltimore, to the point where a Browns fan was recently arrested for peeing on Modell’s grave. That’s a high bar to match, and I’m not sure the Rams have the kind of tradition in St. Louis that anyone will be inspired to quite that much hatred if they leave, but it’s always nice to give people ideas — so long as Leitch doesn’t end up paralyzed by fear of his own awesome power if it works.
  • I don’t always post links here to when I do radio appearances (Twitter is a better place to keep up with that, if you’re interested), but my visit to St. Louis CBS Sports Radio’s We Are Live last night was too long and too hilarious not to share with you all. Podcast link is here; if I can find a web archived version as well, I’ll add an update.

Long Island pol gripes that Cosmos stadium would create traffic because no one would go there wait what?

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If you’ve been thinking, “Hey, it’s been a long time since Field of Schemes has written about that crazy $400 million New York Cosmos stadium plan,” here, have a Long Island politician complaining about how the crazy thing about it is that it would create too much traffic:

“It’s a bad idea for the region,” said [Nassau County Legislator Carrié] Solages (D-Elmont), who is worried it could create a traffic nightmare for local residents. “Soccer does not have the draw it needs to survive here.”

The Cosmos also got a brief mention in my just-posted interview on The ‘Cast (on YouTube, but it’s audio-only), so go listen to that as well if you like. Though we didn’t really delve into the problem of how to deal with the traffic jams created by nonexistant minor-league soccer fans.

Worldwide media domination (Seattle edition)

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Chris Daniels of KING5 in Seattle has been in Brooklyn all week covering the new Nets arena (see his interview with Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report here), and last night the station aired his talk with me about Seattle’s arena plans. I’m not sure I broke any new ground in analysis of the deal, but if you’ve been dying to see fast-cut closeups of me drinking tea, this is a must-watch.

And because I neglected to mention it at the time, a couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by RT America (the web channel formerly known as Russia Today) about my spiked Washington Post op-ed on the Nationals stadium deal. This one was conducted via Skype — watch closely and see if you can tell the difference in production values!

Field of Schemes global media domination!

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Okay, not exactly, but for some reason it was a popular week for me to be interviewed about various stadium deals:

  • Rob Smith talked to me for his Biz of Baseball podcast about the new Miami Marlins stadium and the prospects for a new Tampa Bay Rays one.
  • The St. Louis Post-Dispatch asked me about Missouri state assemblymember Jeanette Mott Oxford’s bill to require that sports teams open their books if they want to get public subsidies. (My verdict: Interesting and original idea, but it’s going to be tricky to implement.)
  • U-T San Diego’s Tim Sullivan cited me as backup for his conclusion that “the Department of Home Team Security has issued a new advisory, downgrading the danger of Los Angeles stealing the Chargers from Low to Laughable.”

That oughta give you folks something to pass the time until I’ve finished writing up the latest in the Minnesota Vikings stadium fiasco…