Field of Schemes: More news than you can shake a stick at

October 10, 2005

More news than you can shake a stick at

It's a three-day weekend, but am I lollygagging about on the couch watching baseball playoff games? Well, maybe a little. But I'm also scouring the wires to present you with a veritable cornucopia of stadium news, under the possibly mistaken belief that this will somehow make the world a better place. Please don't dispell my illusions.

A Minnesota Twins stadium deal is looking less and less likely this year, with Gov. Tim Pawlenty and legislative leaders saying a University of Minnesota football stadium would be the focus of any special legislative session. Pawlenty also seems to be shying away from the Twins' demands for a state waiver of the law requiring a local referendum to raise taxes, saying that while Minneapolis is still "Plan A," St. Paul might be more amenable to passing a stadium tax . And round and round it goes...
Talks of a new Toronto soccer stadium just won't die, with the latest plan having Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, owner of the Maple Leafs and Raptors, kicking in $8 million toward a $60 million stadium near the site of the old Ex, with the hopes of siting a new or relocated MLS team there. (Most of the rest of the cash would come from the city and federal governments.) "It was our preference to be a tenant in a building, but to be a tenant in a building that doesn't exist doesn't work," MLSE President Richard Peddie told the Toronto Star, with what I suppose to be typical Canadian understatement. Whose costs - MLSE's or the public's - would be repaid by revenues from MLS games at the new stadium was left unstated.
The Washington City Paper's Josh Levin has a good long cover story this week on the likely design of a new Nationals stadium. Most interesting revelations: The Nats have prevailed over the D.C. sports commission in insisting on a double-decked layer of luxury suites that will both boost construction costs, and raise the top deck 21 feet higher than at the current RFK Stadium. (Adding insult to injury, Levin reports that upper-deck seat widths will be reduced from 20 to 19 inches, while high-priced seats below will be 22 inches wide.) Best line: "The stadiums of the early 20th century sat on around 8 acres of land. The D.C. ballpark will sprawl over 21 acres in the middle of a 60-acre 'Ballpark District' ... That’s not a ballpark. That’s Luxembourg."
The Detroit Tigers are the latest team to consider moving a minor-league affiliate to their metro area as a low-priced alternative to big-league tickets. Tigers president Dave Dombrowski says the team is looking into moving its Double-A Erie affiliate to suburban Dearborn or Taylor, either of which would need to build a new stadium to host it - sure is too bad there's no other place to put a minor-league team in Detroit.
With Nassau County having opened bids for the Nassau Coliseum site, there are now three competing projects - including one by the New York Mets that would include, you guessed it, a minor-league baseball stadium - going up against Islanders owner Charles Wang's "Lighthouse" project. County Executive Tom Suozzi has promised a decision by December.
With hockey back in action - surely you noticed, right? - the Pittsburgh Penguins are gearing up for a major p.r. campaign to push for being awarded a state slots-parlor license that they say will give them the revenues to build a new arena. "We want this to be a level playing field," team president Ken Sawyer said, straight-faced, of the coming ad blitz. "If we get a level playing field, we think our bid will be the best because it will result in the team staying and a brand-new building."
Add another team to the list mulling demands for a new home: A Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel column by the unfortunately named Michael Hunt, smells like trial balloon for the Bucks to begin talks for replacing the 17-year-old Bradley Center. Hunt notes that as Bucks owner Herb Kohl is a U.S. Senator up for re-election next year, "the senator does not have the typical owner's leverage. He cannot say, for example, 'Give me what I want or I'm outta here.'" Poor, sweet baby.

COMMENTS

They are building a soccer stadium in Toronto in part because Canada was awarded the 2007 FIFA World Youth Championship: "A major factor in FIFA awarding this event to CSA and Canada was the recent decision by the Governments of Canada, and Ontario on May 21, 2004, to financially support the development of the new Toronto stadium with a joint $35 million contribution to this project. The only condition cited in the awarding of this grant was the requirement by FIFA to stage the World Youth Championship in Canada in 2007." hxxp://www.soccer.on.ca/OSN.nsf/0/ebda63e07f23860c85256f8f0072cb92?OpenDocument
Posted by: scaryice at October 10, 2005 05:32 AM

Yes, The Canadia Soccer Association was awarded the 2007 FIFA WYC. A stadium in Toronto is desperately needed. And with a new Toronto MLS expansion team on the horizon, the project makes a lot of sence. Anyone know how the public transportation to the new stadium will be? And does anyone follow the MLS in Toronto? or do they just follow bloody Europ Footy?
Posted by: Bertell Ollman at October 10, 2005 12:03 PM