October 18, 2004
Stadium news from all over
With Fox having turned itself into the 24-hour baseball network, I'm too bleary to write separate entries today. So, on with the bullet points:
- The Toronto Argonauts have found a backup school to those deadbeats at the University of Toronto, lining up York University to help pay for a $70 million football stadium. The federal and Ontario governments will pay for $28 million of the cost of the stadium, which will also be used by the school.
- San Francisco 49ers owner John York says he'll soon reveal details of a plan to build a $550 million stadium for his team next door to the Monstrosity. York said he'd use the NFL's G-3 loan program and $100 million in public money - approved by city voters way back in 1997 - to pay for some of the cost; the rest is as yet uncertain.
- The good-government group D.C. Watch has called for an ethics investigation of Mayor Anthony Williams' office for issuing a request to city employees to "obtain as many signed letters of support as possible" for his proposed $440 million Expos stadium project. Dorothy Brizill of D.C. Watch accused the mayor's office of "using D.C. government employees to lobby another branch of the District government." The D.C. council is expected to hold its one and only hearing on the stadium plan on Thursday, October 28, with the first of two required votes to follow on November 9.
- The NFL commissioner, Roger Staubach, and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are all in support of Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones' plan for a $650 million stadium, half of which would be paid for by the city of Arlington. In related news, it looks like President Bush has picked up a key endorsement.
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