Another busy Friday where I need to squeeze in the news roundup when and where I can! (Also, yeah, New Yorkers already knew this about Mike Bloomberg, who also was responsible for this.)
- Arizona Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall says now that the team has been granted control over their stadium, “we’ve kind of tapped the brakes on” moving elsewhere. “We had urgency before because we didn’t control the stadium,” said Hall, adding, “We’re going to kick the tires around Maricopa County. But we’re going to stay here. My focus is on Arizona. And we’re going to do everything we can to stay at Chase Field.” That’s quite a turnaround from saying that the 22-year-old stadium is in such bad shape they might have to move entirely out of the state to get away from it, but anyway, this looks like a pretty nice upgrade!
- In related news, Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno says that now that he’s set to gain control of development of the parking lots around Angel Stadium, he still doesn’t know whether he’ll use the cash to replace the stadium or renovate it or what. It’s almost like team owners just disparage their stadiums in order to get hold of land or other concessions, even if they’re not really that desperate to move, especially when moving would require paying for their own stadium construction! Meanwhile, the city of Anaheim has officially rejected claims that it violated public-meeting laws by holding meetings about the Angels land sale in private, which means that now those who disagree can sue the city, which they’re expected to momentarily.
- The Vegas Golden Knights are set to build their new minor-league arena at the site of the Henderson Pavilion amphitheater, and local residents are all up in arms because nobody warned them and they’re afraid it will bring traffic. Also city officials say this “will be a public/private partnership but we are in the very preliminary planning stages and don’t yet have all the details,” maybe that’s the thing to worry about more than traffic generated by minor-league hockey?
- New Jersey just discovered that the owners of the Philadelphia 76ers used $400,000 in tax breaks in 2016 to pay the fees required for applying for $82 million in tax breaks on a new practice facility in Camden. New Jersey would like its money back now, please — not all $82 million, but just the excess $400,000, because that’ll show ’em.
- Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg says that “if things blow through this year and we sell a ton more tickets — a ton,” then maybe he’ll consider keeping the team in Tampa Bay full-time. Sternberg is gonna extort something from somebody, by gum, if he has to threaten everyone in North America!
- People are still hiring Convention, Sports & Leisure to do their stadium and arena impact studies, I honestly don’t know how much more I can warn them.
- “Are stadiums effective engines of economic growth? Simple answer: No.” There’s more to this interview with Davidson College economics professor Fred Smith, but that’s a decent tl;dr version.
- Wake County, North Carolina, is planning to spend $59 million over the next 25 years on a $193 million, 4,000-seat arena and community sports complex, the rest of which would be paid for by … thingy. Anyone who has more information about this project, please start a news site in North Carolina, as clearly none of the few remaining professional journalists on the job there have both time and interest to find out about this one.